; i ■ ■ ■ Mil ■■■I Hi W&rc Af*8^ Mfe .fcuA™ «m$^ tfVNyi W^ifc^AfUfJ pfwjp nnP \w> ■ \.A*/W JHM >*^#i mmMM 2* -jn -»V^ ^M V"^ ^M^^ -4^^ Aotoi? ^r */to*' 'PI ^/'^" ■' **.. Estimate of Temperature during the Tertiary Period, of ages, for accumulated generations to have formed of their remains a soil of vast extent and considerable thickness. If, as I firmly believe, the basin of the Gironde has been deposited under an equatorial temperature, a glance at the map will suffice to convince us, that the influence of this temperature must have been felt as far as Poland and the south of Russia in Europe. To determine the temperature of my second tertiary period, I have proved the analogy of nearly two hundred species of the torrid zone with the fossil species distributed more particu- larly at Bordeaux and at Dax, but found in all the other basins belonging to this second period. An equally conclusive mode is, unfortunately, wanting to determine the temperature of the first stage of tertiary strata. This first group, represented particularly by the Paris basin, occupies, also, that of London and that of Valognes, almost all Belgium and Holland, many points of the Alps, Castel Gonbereo, the Val de Ronca, some small basins of Hungary and Moldavia, the lower part of the basin of the Gironde (Blaye, &c), and, finally, but with some uncertainties, all the lower tertiary strata of North America. Among more than 14-00 known species in the Parisian strata, 38 only are analogous to recent ones. It is true, that the greater part of these 38 species live solely in the equa- torial zone ; nevertheless, there are some found among them which are not only distributed through this zone, and found also in our temperate seas, but even are seen to have passed into the North Sea. We must abandon, then, in calculating the temperature of the most important tertiary period, the means that I have employed for the two preceding ones. I can, however, supply its place by many other means, though of less value than that which fails me in this instance. In the Icy Seas, there exist only a very small number of Mollusca ; but other species are added to these in proportion as we advance towards warmer regions ; and thus we see them augment from 8 or 10 which subsist near the 80th degree, to nearly 900, which live in the tropical region of Senegal and Guinea. This increase of species with an in- crease of temperature points out, also, the influence which is exercised by an agent so powerful as heat upon the creation of living beings. But these phenomena do not show them- selves only in that part of the terrestrial globe which I have chosen for an example ; they are produced, also, from the Sea of Behring to the Isles of Sunda, on each side of North founded upon the Study of Fossil Shells, 15 America, and, in an inverse manner, on each side of South America. An important fact has just given a new point d'appui to the estimate of the temperature of the two latest tertiary periods : it is the agreement in the number of fossil and re- cent species. Thus, in the north, there are few recent species, few in a fossil state ; in the region of the Mediterranean, about 700 fossil species, nearly 600 recent. We must call to our recollection, that this difference arises from the circum- stance, that among the fossil species, there are a certain num- ber belonging to races now extinct. In fine, the high temperature of my second period will be placed beyond dispute, when, to the thousand fossil species of this epoch are opposed the nine hundred recent ones in the African seas lying between the tropics. Since the number of species increases with the tempera- ture, since on a fixed point of the torrid region we find 900 species, it appears to me that, by a natural induction, we may attribute to my first tertiary period a temper- ature at least equatorial ; for we recognise there, as we have already said, 1400 species, of which above 1200 were accu- mulated within the limits of the Paris basin; that is to say, in an extent of 40 leagues in diameter one way, and 55 the other. There no longer exists, in any of our seas, any single point exhibiting an equal number of species in as small a space. If we now examine these species, we shall find them par- ticularly large and numerous in the families and genera whose species multiply in the warmest regions of the earth, forty species of Cerithia, a great number of Pleurotomae, of Fusi, of Mitrae, of Volutae, of Murices, of Veneres, of Cardia, of A'rcae, &c, found, in a fossil state, in the environs oi" Paris; the absence in this basin of the forms peculiar to the North Seas; all these facts relative to the number and nature of the species, unite to attest strongly that the great Parisian period took place under an equatorial temperature, probably higher than that of the equator at present. In borrowing from other parts of Parisian palaeontology documents comparable to those which conchology furnishes, I find in the great number of Pachydermata, and their some- times gigantic size, another proof of the high temperature of the Paris basin. Where do we find, in the present day, animals analogous to these, if it be not in the equatorial parts of the old and new continents, in the Isles of Sunda, and in the Asiatic islands ? By adding to these considerations those furnished by a small number of fossil vegetables, particularly 16 Probable Temperature during the Tertiary Period. by some palms, we shall have acquired the means of forming a sufficient number of inductions, all tending to prove the high temperature of the first period of the tertiary strata. I shall give, perhaps, a greater degree of certainty to my inductions, if I bring before our consideration the ancient state of the Paris basin, as compared with its present one. I find there, in effect, on one side, a great number of animals whose races are annihilated ; and, on the other, the soil occu- pied by new races, and the nearest seas peopled by species of which ninety-nine hundredths did not formerly exist. I find also, in this comparison, the proofs of profound changes which have taken place in the circumstances of existence of living creatures : but I will not pursue this interesting sub- ject ; it would demand more space for developement than I can give it here. From what I have just shown, it appears to me that we may draw the following conclusions : — 1. The first tertiary period took place under an equatorial temperature; and, according to all probability, one many de- grees hotter than the present temperature of the equator. 2. During the second period, the beds of which occupy the centre of Europe, the temperature has been similar to that of Senegal and of Guinea. 3. The temperature of the third period, at first a little more elevated than ours in the basin of the Mediterranean, has become similar to that which we experience. In the north, the species of the north are fossil ; in the south, those of the south. Thus, since the commencement of the tertiary strata, the temperature has been constantly diminishing. Passing, in our climates, from the equatorial to that which we now enjoy, it is easy to measure the difference. Without doubt, naturalists, supporting themselves upon theories concerning heat, have been able to conjecture, a priori, the changes of temperature of which I have just spoken : it is curious, nevertheless, to see their conjectures confirmed by a long- neglected science, which no one had yet thought of directing towards this entirely novel end. This question respecting temperatures might be resumed for the secondary strata ; but observations and materials are wanting. This is not -the only one in the domain of con- chology ; many others are of no less importance : biology, for example, destined to make us acquainted with the laws of the developement of life on the surface of the earth within time and space, will draw from conchology numerous mate- rials. But biology is a science yet to be formed. Lamarck has discovered it: who shall lay its foundations ? — E. S. C. Description of a new British Fish. 17 Art. III. Description of a new British Fish. By Edward Moore, M.D. F.L.S., Secretary to the Plymouth Institution. I transmit, for insertion in your Magazine, a description and rough sketch of a fish caught on the usual fishing- ground between Plymouth and the Eddystone, by the crew of a trawl sloop belonging to Mr. Bulley of this town, and brought fresh to me by Mr. W. Snow Harris, F.R.S. ; in which state it was also seen by Lieut-Col. C. Hamilton Smith. It has shlce been inspected by Mr. Couch of Pol- perro and Mr. Yarrell, both of whom pronounce it new to Britain. The characters are as follows : — It is the Peri- stedion Malarmat of Lacepede and Cuvier, Trigla cataphracta Un.9 Mailed Gurnard. Its length is 11 in.; from the nose projects a forked snout 1 in. long, the divisions being half an inch apart at the base, where there are three small mammil- lary projections. From the snout to the base of the pectoral fin, it measures 3jin. ; the head is armed with numerous tooth-like processes, of which three are placed triangularly on the nose, six over the eye, three larger on the forehead, and thence they extend in a serrated manner, down the back to the tail. The orbit of the eye is oval ; iris silvery ; a pro- jecting bony ridge extends across the cheek-plate, from the nose to the base of the pectoral fin ; the jaws are cartilaginous and toothless ; the chin is furnished with several cirri ; at the under side of each division of the snout are three open- ings, covered with a delicate membrane, through which a pin can be easily passed down to the nose. The body is octagonal, covered with bony scales, laid over each other like a coat of mail ; from the centre of each scale, forming the edge of the octagon, there projects a sharp hook- like process, together forming eight serrated ridges from head to tail ; the hooks are all shaped as in Jig. 2. b, except on the last twelve scales of the superior lateral ridge, where they assume the character exemplified in Jig. 2. a. Their num- ber is as follows : — Dorsal ridge, twenty-nine scales ; supe- Vol. I. — No. I. n.s. c 18 Description of a new British Fish, rior lateral, thirty ; inferior lateral and abdominal, each twenty-three : the small number of the latter is owing to the three pectoral scales, where the fins play, being much en- larged ; they are, also, free from points, and united with the abdominal plates, three of which, of different dimensions, extend on each side from the neck to the vent. The formula for the fin rays will be as follows : — Dorsal, twenty-six ; the first twelve or fourteen extending much beyond the others. Pectoral, eight, 2 in. long, with only two free rays below it. Ventral, six, ljin. long. Anal, sixteen. Caudal, fourteen, Ijin. long, slightly forked. The chief flexible points appear to be at the neck and the junctions of the gill-plates : the motion of the other parts of the body is much impeded by the firmness of the imbrications with which the whole of the fish is surrounded. Its colour, when fresh, was of a uniform scarlet, like the red gurnard, gradually softening to pale flesh-colour towards the abdomen ; the anal and dorsal fins were crimson ; but the others pale and greyish. The Peristedion coloured in the Naturalist's Miscellany is from a dried specimen. This is, probably, a young fish, as it is said to be found, Observations upon the Lunar Hornet Sphinx. 1 9 sometimes, in the Mediterranean, 2 ft. long. {Diet, d' Hist. Nat., t. 25.) It has been long separated from the gurnards by the French naturalists, and should have a different Eng- lish name, as it is totally distinct from that family. Plymouth, Sept. 5. 1836. Art. IV. Observations upon Trochilium crabroniformist the Lunar Hornet Sphinx. By the Rev. W. T. Bree. Many insects, I believe, are reputed to be rare only because, from our ignorance of their habits and mode of life, we know not how to search for them. There are insects, too, which are commonly met with in one state of their existence, and but seldom seen in another. Some are more frequently found in the imago, or perfect, state ; others in that of larva. Not that they may not, in fact, be equally abundant in each state ; but they are obvious in the one, and less so in the other. The caterpillars, e. g., of nearly all the British species of the genus Hipparchia (and, probably, the remark might be extended to the foreign species also) are seldom met with, although several of the species are among our most common butterflies. . For instance, Hipparchia Janira swarms, in its season, in every meadow and field of grass; and, if we except the garden whites (Pontia brassicae and rapae), is perhaps the most abundant butterfly we have ; and yet I never met with the caterpillar of this species but once, and then by mere accident : I was walking through a meadow of grass ; and, feeling something in my shoe, on examination I found it to be a green cater- pillar, which in due time changed to a chrysalis, and produced Hipparchia Janira. How abundant, again (to take another instance), are several species of the little blue butterflies (Poly- 6mmati)on our downs and chalk-hills! yet these, as caterpillars, are quite unknown to me ; nor are they depicted in any ento- mological work to which I happen to have access. Of course, these caterpillars must, at any rate, be as numerous as the butterflies which are produced from them : we may safely say, more numerous ; for all do not come to perfection : some will be accidentally destroyed. No doubt, they feed on the short herbage which grows in the situations where the butterflies are found ; for the latter, for the most part, do not stray far from the spot where they are bred. Probably they keep close to the surface ; and, perhaps, like some other larvae, they may feed by night : at all events, they are not obvious, and, I be- lieve, are very rarely found. The above are instances of insects frequent in the winged state, but seldom found in that c 2 20 Observations upon Trochilium crabroniformis, of larva. There are others, on the contrary, which are more frequently met with in the larva than in the perfect state; e. g. Smerinthus populi (poplar hawk), Cerura vinula (puss moth), Episema cseruleocephala (figure of 8), Clisiocampa Neustria (lackey), Eriogaster lanestris (small egger), Odonestis potatoria (drinker), Mamestra pisi (broom), &c. I do not say that all these are rare in the winged state, but merely that they are far more frequently met with in the state of cater- pillars. Possibly, many may be devoured by birds, or preyed on by parasitic Hymenoptera, and so do not come to per- fection ; but I think that their comparative infrequency in the winged state arises chiefly from their habits. A person may walk through a wood which abounds with the little brilliant purple hairstreak (Thecla quercus), and yet not see a single individual, unless his attention is directed to the right quarter. These insects keep hovering about, and settling upon the sum- mits of oak trees ; in which situation they sometimes absolutely swarm. They rarely approach the ground ; and, even in a cloudy day, if disturbed by your shaking the trees, they settle again in the same place. This insect then, though com- mon and abundant, is not obvious. But I am straying sadly from the particular subject which suggested these remarks ; viz. Trochilium crabroniformis. (Jig* 30 Tfte larva of this insect feeds upon the living wood tllJ HI a, Female, b, Male. of the broad-leaved willow (Salixcaprea), the stems of which it perforates, entering them near the root, and eating its way upwards for several inches, sometimes to the length of a foot or more {Jig- 4. c).# (See the specimens sent: Jig, 5.) * See Transactions ofLinncean Society, vol. iii. tab. i., for a figure of the insect in its three stages [from which our figures are copied]. Lewin, the writer of the article, gives it as his opinion that " the caterpillar does not enter the wood till the second year of its own age ,• " and he states as a reason, that, " among all the numerous larvae he has found from June to the Lunar Hornet Sphinx. 21 Being an internal feeder, the caterpillar, of course, is only to be found by cutting into and opening the steins of the wil- low, in which it is enclosed, finding there both food and lodging. Salix caprea abounds in our coppices, and forms a useful and rapid-growing un- derwood. When the periodi- cal falls take place, I have ob- served that scarcely a single willow wand is cut down that does not exhibit proofs of the ravages of this insect: some- times three or four, or even five, separate perforations oc- cur in the same stem.* We may fairly infer, therefore, that Trochilium crabroniformis is here a common species; and yet, strange to say, I have never met with an example of the winged insect at large in this county. I have bred it from the caterpillar ; and once I took a single pair in an osier bed near Dudley, which at the time were considered as great rarities, f Doubtless, this in- c, Larva ; d, pupa; e, web closing the orifice by which the animal had entered. November, he could perceive but a slight difference in size. Probably, therefore, they may feed on the tender bark of the sallow root the first year after they are"hatched." This, I think, is very probably the case ; for I have not observed in the wood any perforations of a very small size, or such as have the appearance of having been made by caterpillars newly hatched. As the caterpillar eats its way upwards through the solid wood, a question may arise, How is the sphinx, when it bursts from the chrysalis, to make its escape out of the wood without injury? To obviate this diffi- culty, instinct directs the caterpillar, before it changes to chrysalis, to turn its head downwards, so as to be opposite to the orifice, which affords a ready exit for the winged insect. (A portion of the plate in Lin. Trans,, above referred to, is copied in Jig. 4.) * I do not find that the caterpillar confines itself to the pith, as stated by Lewin to be generally the case. Sometimes the pith is untouched, all the perforations being in the solid wood, between the pith and the bark. f Mr. Stephens states that, during the month of July, 1817, he * saw it in profusion, flying heavily along, on the south-west border of Darenth Wood." (I/lustrations, Haustelhta, vol, i. p. 138.) c 3 22 Observations upo?i the Lunar Hornet Sphinx. sect might be met with in sufficient plenty in this part of the country, if one were acquainted with its habits, and knew how to look for it. To the woodman our elegant sphinx must be regarded as in some degree an injurious insect. The wood of Salix caprea is, with us, usually either sold to the rake- maker, for the purpose of being worked up into rake-teeth, &c, or converted into what are here called flakes, i. e. hurdles made of split stuff nailed together, in contradistinction to the common hurdle, which is formed of round wood, twisted and plaited together without the help of nails. The lower, and consequently the thickest, portion of each willow rod, to the length of five or six inches, or occasionally a foot or more, is spoiled by the perforations of the larva, and rendered un- available to the above purposes. It may seem an odd com- plaint to make: but Salix caprea appears to be a tree of rather too rapid a growth ; that is to say, it outruns its neigh- bours, and comes to maturity before the rest of the underwood with which it is intermixed. If, indeed, the entire underwood consisted of this species only, the coppice would make a quick return, and might be cut at the end of every seven or eight years, or in little more than half the time usually allowed for the growth of coppice-wood. My own practice is, to cut wood at about ten or eleven years' growth. Long before the time comes round for the periodical fall, I observe that on every stool of the broad-leaved willow most of the rods have ceased to thrive, and many have even died ; and I cannot help sus- pecting that this premature decay may, in part at least, be owing to the injury inflicted at the base of the stems by the larvae of Trochilium crabroniformis. Allesley Rectory, Nov. 7. 1836. Mode of Progression in the Genus Lima. 23 Art. V. On the Mode of Progression observed in the Genus Lima Brug. By H. E. Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. In May, 1836, I was detained at Malta to perform quaran- tine ; the accustomed penance to which all must submit who visit the Levant. I used to beguile this tedious imprisonment with watching the amphibious occupations of the Maltese fishermen, in the harbour fronting the Lazzaretto. The barren island of Malta teems with a vast population, who live in the greatest poverty, and can with difficulty procure subsistence. Land produce failing them, they take to the sea, and devour indiscriminately all that they can find, whether vertebrated, crustaceous, molluscous, or radiated. Among others of these frutti di mare, as they are called, the Maltese are particularly fond of the Lith6domus dactylus Cuv., a shell which perfo- rates the limestone rocks in the same manner as the Pholas. When these shells occur in detached blocks of limestone, the latter are fished up by means of a large pair of iron forceps, attached to ropes. The fisherman sprinkles a few drops of oil on the water, and renders its surface as smooth as glass. He is then enabled, by the clearness of the water, to detect every object in a depth even of six fathoms, and to raise the blocks of stone to the surface by means of his grappling-irons. He then breaks them to pieces, and extracts the sea-dates, as these perforating Lithodomi are termed. Not content with those which are obtained by this means, the Maltese will dive to great depths, armed with hammers and chisels, and extract the dates from the solid rock. While watching these operations, and examining the miscel- laneous productions obtained by the fishermen, I was struck by the lively motions of some specimens of a Lima, about ljin. in length. On placing them in a glass of sea water, I found that this bivalve possesses the power of swimming in great perfection. The shell opens to a much greater width than any other bivalve that I am acquainted with ; and, when thus filled with water, the valves are suddenly closed by a rapid contraction of the adductor muscle. The water is thus ejected with violence from the front margin, and causes the shell to move with considerable speed in an opposite direc- tion. By repeating these contractions and expansions, the animal is enabled to swim in a straight course, and to an in- definite distance. So great is the force with which the valves are brought together, that their collision produces a snapping noise, which is distinctly audible. t I have not observed any other molluscous bivalve which c 4 24 Mode of Progression in the Genus Lima. possesses this singular mode of progression.* If I mistake not, however, the genus Cypris (a crustaceous animal with a bivalve shell) swims in a manner somewhat analogous. The animal of the Lima which I noticed at Malta is of a delicate pink colour ; the margin of the mantle fringed with numerous slender filaments.^ It is described, in some works on Mollusca, as provided with a byssus ; but of this I could see no traces ; nor is it probable than an animal possessed of such great locomotive powers should have one. Cuvier, in- deed, though aware of its power of natation, assigns it a small byssus. He further asserts that some species of Pecten are able to swim, while others are permanently attached by their byssus. Now, it appears to me, that the great locomotive powers of the Lima betoken an organisation so different from that of those Pectines which remain constantly rooted to one spot by their byssus, as to make a wide interval between these two genera. It is desirable, therefore, to learn whether this in- terval really exisits, or whether a passage may be traced between the locomotive and the attached species of Pectinidae. I have, therefore, drawn up the following queries for the con- sideration of your conchological readers : — 1. What are the natatory species of Pecten to which Cuvier alludes? 2. Do they possess a byssus ? If so, can they attach them- selves spontaneously? or are they attached at any definite period of their existence? 3. Do these natatory Pectines exhibit any generic or sub- generic difference from the attached species ? 4. Do the attached species become detached at certain periods of life, or can they detach themselves spontane- ously ? 5. Are there any species of other byssiferous genera, such as A'rca, Pinna, &c, which are constantly or occasionally detached and locomotive ? 6. Do any species of Lima possess a byssus ? If so, are they either permanently or occasionally attached ? Lastly. If it should appear that the whole genus Lima is destitute of a byssus, and is permanently locomotive ; and that all the other genera with which it has been hitherto classed possess a byssus, and are permanently attached ; what other organic differences characterise the genus Lima ? and where ought it to be placed in a systematic classification ? * This singular locomotive property is not peculiar to the genus Lima. — Ed. Rare Plants collected in Jersey, 25 Art. VI. Notices of a few rare Plants collected in Jersey in October, 1836. By Wm. Christy, jun., Esq., F.L.S., &c. The results of- a fortnight's botanising, in the end of autumn, and in very unfavourable weather, would not be worth communicating to your pages, were it not that I thought it might interest some of your readers, who, like myself, might pay a hasty visit to Jersey, to know where they may at once lay their hand on some of the rarer plants of our flora. And here I would remark that I cannot but object to the admission into the British flora of the plants of the Channel Islands. In point of geographical situation, they are de- cidedly French ; and, if we reject from our fauna the shells, insects, and birds, why is our flora entitled to the plants ? However, as it is universally agreed that they are to be ad- mitted, I must submit, and even go farther, and give my con- tribution to the increase of the list of plants reputed as British) from the circumstance of their being found in Jersey. I have no doubt that, until the island is fully explored, it will be continually affording us additions to our flora; for, I be- lieve, there is no resident botanist ; and the few who visit it from England have not time for a very close investiga- tion. That this is the case, is evident from the discovery, in 1834«, by Mr. Trevelyan, of Statice plantaginea; a plant so abundant in one part of the island, so conspicuous, and so much larger than S. Armeria, that no botanist could have passed it over unobserved. Then, again, Evchium violaceum, found by that gentleman, is so different from E. vulgare, as well as from E. italicum, which was supposed to be the plant intended by Ray as " Lycopsis," that any one finding the plant would, as he did, immediately detect the mistake. I am therefore led to believe that few, if any, botanists have explored Jersey of late years. From its diversity of surface, we might expect a rich harvest ; and I have no doubt any assiduous botanist, who would sit down there for three or four months, and patiently explore the different districts of the island, would find his labours rewarded. Having only remained here about three weeks, at an advanced period of the year, and not hav- ing seen half the island, I do not pretend to guess at its flora. All I propose to ido is, to give a list of some of the plants which, in England, are rare or local, with the stations in which I found them. 26 Notices~of a few rare Plants Before doing this, I will, however, briefly glance at the various situations which afford the different plants. The greater part of the coast is composed of perpendicular granite cliffs, too much washed by the sea to admit of much vegetation, except a few lichens. In some sheltered bays, however, they are clothed with vegetation, including some rare maritime species. The grassy slopes above them also afford several very rare plants, which, with us, usually affect similar situations. Jersey is remarkably deficient in streams or pools, in which we might look for marsh plants. In the marshes of St. Ouen's Bay is a large piece of water, called St. Ouen's Pond. I only saw it from a distance ; but it ap- peared to have no plants on its margin. The principal streams (and these, too, are very small) are in the valleys of St. Laurence and St. Peter, especially the latter. They form a number of boggy meadows, which would probably afford some rare Carices. I am not aware of the existence of any salt marshes, unless they exist in Granville and St. Ouen's Bays. There are not many inland rocks, except on the hills called coties, which occur in most parts of the island. They are principally covered with furze, with points of rock peep- ing up through the turf. In a few places, there are, how- ever, faces of rock ; but they do not afford any very rare plants. The deep lanes which intersect the country in every direc- tion, especially those whose banks are rocky, seem well adapted for ferns; though the number of these is more limited than I should have expected. The sandy shores of St. Aubyn's, St. Brelade's, and St. Ouen's Bays afford, per- haps, the greatest number of rare plants. But the most curious spot is the extraordinary inland sandy district of Les Quenvais, which is situated in the parish of St. Brelade. It is an immense deposit of drift sand, nearly a mile from the sea, which is there bordered by high cliffs. How it got there, it is difficult to imagine. It is now pretty firmly fixed by an abundance of Ammophila arundinacea, and affords a rich harvest of plants generally peculiar to sea-shore sands. I have only one plant in my list which I believe new to the British flora ; and this I give with some hesitation, as I only saw it in a very decayed state; but, from the description given to me by those who saw it in perfection, I cannot find that it agrees with any described British species. Several of the plants mentioned are not properly rare, but, in England, are generally local. collected in Jersey in October, 1836. 27 Papaverdcecs. Glaticium flavum. Quenvais, St. Ouen's, Brelade's, and St. Aubyn's Bays. CrucifercB. Mathiola sinuata. St. Ouen's Bay, Petit Port, St. Aubyn's Bay, near Milbrook ; also on the Quenvais. Senebiera didyma Banks and road sides at St. Helier's and St. Aubyn's. CistinecB. Helianthemum guttatum. Abundant on the sloping ground above the cliffs between La Corbiere and Noirmont Point. Caryophyllecs. Dianthus prolifer. Near St. Ouen's ; also on the Quenvais. Silene conica. On the Quenvais, anglica. Sandy places, very common, nutans. Near St. Ouen's; rocks by road side from St. Bre- lade's towards St. Aubyn's. Linecs. Linum angustifolium. Fields and Coties, common ; Quenvais, &c. GeraniacecB. Erddium cicutarium flore albo. St. Aubyn's Bay and Quenvais. maritimum. Greve de Lecq. moschatum. St. Aubyn's Bay, near Beaumont ; also on the bastions of Fort Regent. Lotus angustissimus. Banks of a lane leading from La Haule to the Quenvais. Pomdcecs. Mespilus germanica. Abundant in the hedges between Roselle Manor House and Gorey. Paronychias. Polycarpon tetraphyllum. A com- mon weed in gardens, hedge banks, &c. ; Quenvais, La Haule, St. Aubyn's, &c. CrassulacetB. Cotyledon Umbilicus. Roofs, walls, banks, and rocks, everywhere. Sedum anglicum. Rocks, walls, and coties, common. UmbellifercB. Petroselinum sativum. Naturalised on the walls of Mont Orgueil Castle. Crithmum maritimum. Cliffs at La Corbiere, and Plemont Point. Fceniculum vulgare. Rocks and banks near the sea ; not rare. Valeridvece. Centranthus ruber. ? Naturalised on the rocks and walls of Fort Regent. Composites. Hypochcevris glabra. Sands at Greve de Lecq. Carlina acaulis. Common. Gnaphalium luteo-album. Road side near Petit Port. Convolvuldcece. Calystegia Soldanella. Sands at Greve de Lecq. Boraginece. E'chium violaceum. Road sides on the Quenvais, Mont le Veau, and elsewhere. Borago officinalis. Road sides and orchards, apparently wild. Soldnecs. Solatium nigrum fructu rubro. Quen- vais, Petit Port, &c. Scroph ularinece. Scrophularia Scorodonia. Hedge banks and moist places all over the island. Sibthorpia europae^a. Banks of shady lanes above La Haule Manor House. Labiates. Mentha rotundifolia. Road side a little above La Haule, towards the Quenvais. Marrubium vulgare. St. Brelade's churchyard, waste places ; not rare. Statice plantaginea. In very great profusion on the Quenvais, also on the sand-hills of St. Brelade's Bay; sparingly. Euphorbidcecs. Euphorbia portlandica. Sea shore, all round the island. Paralias. Sands of St. Aubyn's Bay, near Milbrook. Orchidecs. Neottia spiralis. On the Quenvais. IridecB. Tris foetidissima. Sea banks near La Haule. 28 On the Longevity of the Yew. Asphodelece. places in St. Peter's Valley; also Scilla autumnalis. On the sand- in a marshy field near St. Brelade's hills and codes, very common. church. ♦Allium (? sphaerocephalum). Banks Scirpus Savii. By the road side on both sides of the road between between the Quenvais and St. Beaumont and La Haule. I only Brelade's Bay. saw dead stalks of this plant ; but, Graminece from the description of it when in ^ flower, it appears to agree with J specimens of A. sphaerocephalum Filices. which I possess, gathered at Fon- Asplenium marinum. Cliffs at Ple- tainebleau. ; montPointandHavreGiffard. JuncecB. t lanceolatum. Rocks, walls, and Juncus acutus. On the Quenvais, hedge-banks, common; par- St. Ouen's Bay, Petit Port. ticularly fine in shady lanes Cyperdcece. between Greve de Lecq and Cyperus longus. Common in many Plemont Point. La Haule, St. Aubyn's, Oct. 20. 1836. — -i "id * sail Art. VII. On the Longevity of the Yew, as ascertained Jrom actual Sections of its Trunk ; and on the Origin of its frequent Occur- rence in Churchyards. By J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S. ■ Though it has long been known that all exogenous or di- cotyledonous trees form anew ring or layer of wood annually, and that their age may be very nearly ascertained by the number of these concentric circles in a transverse section, the fact seems to have been made little use of, till the publication of Professor De Candolle's interesting paper " On the Lon- gevity of Trees, and the Means of ascertaining it." This method had, indeed, been employed to estimate the age of the huge baobab, or adansonia, of Senegal, and of the taxodium of Mexico; but it had given them an antiquity so enormous, that our reason paused, and a wish was felt that new and care- ful examinations should be made by competent persons to ascertain the fact. Our faith, however, will be strengthened, if we bear in mind that the laws of vegetable life are totally different from those of the animal kingdom. Animals attain their full size at an early period of their existence, the original bones, arteries, &c, continuing to perform the several func- tions of the body until death, though the actual particles of which they are composed constantly pass off and are replaced by others : so that in an old animal we have more the sem- * Since writing the above, I have heard that my friend Mr. Joseph Woods, during a short visit to Jersey last summer, has gathered Allium sphaerocephalum ; so that I think I may safely conclude my plant to have been rightly named. I was also told that Mr. Woods had discovered several other plants new to the British flora ; but have only heard the name of one, Eriica sativa D. C. (Brassica sativa Lin.) — No» 4. On the Longevity of the Yew. 29 blance than the reality of age, the first components of its bones and flesh having long since been resolved into their original elements, and, perhaps, assimilated into other bodies. A tree, on the contrary, during life, is always, at least for a portion of every year, in a state of growth ; the wood first deposited soon ceases to minister to the purposes of vitality; but its fibre remains, and is surrounded and enveloped by other rings, composed of new fibres and vessels, elaborated through the medium of new leaves and spongioles annually produced: so that, in an old tree, its earliest wood remains, though concealed within, and we see only the parts created within the last few years ; and these, possessing the vigour of youth, a natural capacity exists of Carrying on the process to an indefinite period, so long as the exterior of the trunk, the leaves, and rootlets escape the accidents to which they are exposed. The wood of the yew has long been known to be of slower growth, and greater durability, than that of any other European tree ; but I am not aware that, except by Professor Henslow, any attempt has been made to ascertain the age of the vener- able specimens scattered here and there throughout our island by an actual examination of their annual woody deposits. De Candolle says that measurements of the layers of three yews, one of 71, another of 150, and a third of 280 years old, agreed in proving that this tree grows a little more than one line annually in diameter in the first 150 years, and a little less from 150 to 250 years. He adds, " If we admit an average of a line annually for very old yews, it is probably within the truth ; and in reckoning the number of their years as equal to that of the lines of their diameter, we shall make them to be younger than they actually are." I have a section taken near the base of a trunk, whose average annual increase of diameter, for the first 40 years, was 2^ lines. The ave- rage diameter of eighteen yews now growing in the church- yard of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, which it is on record in the parish register were planted out in 1726, is 20 in., or 240 lines, which gives a mean annual increase of 2 lines in the diameter, allowing the trees to be ten years old when planted out. A talented friend of mine *, and an en- thusiast in trees, has a beautiful yew in his grounds at West Felton, Shropshire, which was planted out about 60 years since. Its diameter, below the divarication of the branches, is now 20 in., showing a mean annual increase of 4 lines, or perhaps of 3 J, allowing it to be 10 years old when planted out. This extraordinary growth may be owing to its warm * J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq. SO On the Longevity of the Yew. sheltered situation. I may pause to add that this graceful tree has its lower branches declining towards the ground in all directions, and all its foliage of a pensile character ; but, besides its beauty, it has another interesting peculiarity : though a male and profuse in pollen, it has one entire branch female, that produces and ripens berries plentifully, from which my friend has raised several plants for his friends, all partaking markedly of their parents' pensi'.ity. The above are all the data I have hitherto obtained of yews whose ages are known ; and they all concur in showing a larger increase than De Candolle's standard, which is M a little more than a line annually for the first 150 years." It must, however, be borne in mind, that his average extends 30 or 40 years beyond mine ; the oldest of the trees I have named being only 110, or at most 120, years. In the volume on botany in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Professor Henslow states the mean annual growth of two fine healthy yews in the churchyard at Basildon, in Berkshire, (which, by a singular coincidence, were planted out in the same year as the eighteen at Gresford,) to be equal to four lines. He also found that the layers varied considerably in a yew at Cholsey, in Berkshire, whose trunk was between 14 ft. and 15 ft. in circumference, some of those recently deposited being 2\ lines, while others, a century older, were only half a line in thickness. It will be seen that this inequality accords with my own observations. From these data he ar- rived at the conclusion that De Candolle's calculations should be reduced by one third ; but he does not appear to have examined any very large yews, or to have met with sections containing 40, 50, or even 60 rings within the inch; and it fol- lows that, if a deduction is made on account of the wider rings, we should, on the other hand, add something to De Candolle's average for the closer and thinner ones. I shall now give the result of my own examination of two yews of extraordinary dimensions, of whose age no other evidence exists beyond that supplied by their internal struc- ture. The first (Jig' 6.) stands in the churchyard of Gresford, among the eighteen young ones already mentioned. It is a male tree, its trunk sound to the very core, its numerous gigantic boughs spreading widely, full of foliage, and partially con- cealing the splintered bases of others which have yielded to the storms of past centuries. Its circumference at the base is 22 ft. ; at 2 ft. high, it is 23 ft. ; at 4 ft. 5 in., 26 ft. 6 in. ; and at 5 ft. 3 in., being just below the main boughs, 29 ft. very nearly, thus gradually thickening upwards. I have selected the greatest and least of these admeasurements, as the best On the Longevity of the Yev\ 31 and fairest elements for the mean dimensions of its trunk, and the base of the calculations of its age. They give an average circumference of 25 ft. 6 in., and a diameter of 8 ft. 6 in., or 1224 lines. By De Candolle's method, its age is therefore now 1224 years; and the mass of concentric zones of wood which compose its trunk, when taken in the aggregate, ought to have an average thickness of half a line, or 24 in each inch, counted on a line drawn from the circumference to the centre; because, in measuring the diameter of the trunk, we take in the two opposite sides of the same circle. To ascertain how far this rule might be relied on, I took 32 On the Longevity of the Yew. three horizontal sections from different sides of the trunk *, the average number of rings in each of which is as follows: — Section on the North Side. Section on the South Side. Rings in 1 in. of the diameter - 44 Rings in 2£ in. of the diameter 1 18 Ditto - ditto - - 36 Ditto on opposite side of the Ditto in | in. 45, say in 1 in. 50 50 same section - - - 1 13 ) »c>wi9d * . Average number per inch - 43 Average number per inch - 46 A section taken on the s.w. side, from a projecting portion of the trunk, where the rings were swollen beyond their ordi- nary thickness, contained only 15 within the inch, and were so uniform as not to require an average to be taken. Average number of rings per inch on the north side - - 43 Ditto ditto on the south side - - 46 Ditto ditto on the south-west side - 15 3)104 General average number per inch of diameter - 34f Therefore, a yew whose diameter is 8 ft. 6 in., supposing each inch of the radius to contain 34 rings, would consist of 1734 such annual rings, and be, at least, that number of years old. But this would exceed the truth ; because I have shown that young yews deposit thicker layers than older ones, and a corresponding allowance must be made. Now, as there are eighteen yews growing in the same churchyard, whose ages are knownf, and whose average diameter, at 120 years old, is 20 in., we cannot do better than to assume that the great yew now under consideration had a similar diameter at that age, and, farther, that it continued to increase in the same ratio up to 150 years, the date assigned by De Candolle for the diminu- tion of its rings. I would also make an additional allowance for a probable intermediate rate of increase between the age * Some of my sections have been taken with a frame saw, and others with a circular one, similar to the trephine, made for me by Mr. Salt, sur- gical instrument maker, Birmingham. The latter is worked horizontally, with a carpenter's brace, and is decidedly the best, as it takes out a clean cylinder of wood 3 in. deep, which, when divided longitudinally, shows the annual rings throughout its whole length, and the hole may be plugged up. The greatest difficulty is to detach the base of the cylinder, and extract it ; it has, besides, too much friction, and, in its present state, is only applicable to very hard wood, though I hope to adapt it to all. -f 1 have caused the situation and present dimensions of each of these trees to be inserted in the parish register, to form data whereby their future increase mav be ascertained. On the Longevity of ike Yew. 33 of 150 and 250 years, rather than pass at once from t,he vigorous growth of youth to the slower progress of more ad- vanced periods. I have had no opportunity to obtain satis- factory evidence on this point, though sections from the north and south sides of a yew at least 250 years old, but whose diameter could not be fixed, owing to great inequalities and excrescences, showed an increase of 2 in. diameter in 21 J years, or rather more than one line annually. De Candolle says that, between 150 and 250 years old, the yew grows rather less than one line annually. I will therefore take the mean, and allow 100 lines, or, to avoid fractions, 96 lines, or 8 in. for its growth between 150 and 246 years, only employing the reduced rate obtained from actual sections for its subse- quent periods. Then, at 150 years old, its diameter would be 25 in., or 300 lines ; and at 216 years, 33 in., or 396 lines; and, deducting this from its present diameter of 8 ft. 6 in., the subsequent increase will have been 5 ft. 9 in. Now, a diameter of 5 ft. 9 in., at 34 rings for each inch of the radius, will contain 1173 rings or years' growth ; to which add 246, its assumed age when 2 ft. 9 in. diameter, and we find its present age, by the nearest approximation at which we can arrive, to be 1419 years. I have not made any deduction for the bark, because in the yew it is too thin sensibly to affect the general result. The other aged yew which I have examined is of still greater dimensions than the last, and is growing in the church- yard of Darley in the Dale, Derbyshire. This is a female, with a solid trunk, forking, at 7 ft. above the ground, into two nearly upright boughs, which reach a height of about 55 ft. ; but its head has not the breadth or luxuriance of the Gresford yew. Its circumference at the base is 27 ft. ; at 2 ft. 4 in. above the ground, 27 ft. 7 in. ; at 4 ft., 3 1 ft. 8 in. ; and at 6 ft., 30 ft. 7 in. At 4 ft. high, there are excrescences which swell the trunk beyond its natural size ; I would therefore omit that measurement, and take the mean of the three others, which will be, circumference 28 ft. 4 in., diameter 9 ft. 5 in., disre- garding fractional parts. Its mean diameter is therefore 1 356 lines, which, according to De Candolle's method, would also be the number of its years. Let us now endeavour to find its age by the number and thickness of its annual rings. A horizontal section on the north side contained, in different parts of its surface respectively, 57 rings in 1 in. ; 71 rings in 2 in.; 62 rings in 1 in.; 66 rings in 1 in. ; giving an average number of 51 rings per inch. A similar section, from the south side, contained 53 rings in 1 in. ; 68 rings in 2 in. ; 67 rings in 2 in. ; 66 rings in 2 in. ; and 39 rings in 1 in.; giving an Vol. I. — No. 1. n. s. d 34 On the Longevity of the Yew. average of 36% rings per inch ; the average of both being 4 i rings per inch, very nearly. Therefore this yew, with a mean diameter of 9 ft. 5 in., or radius of 4 ft. 8 J in., would consist of 2186 concentric rings or annual zones. Making the same deductions I have done in the Gresford yew for more rapid growth during the first 246 years, its present age will be about 2006 years. The result of this examination of the sections shows the Gresford tree to be about 200 years, and the Darley one about 650 years, older than the method of allowing a year for each line of the diameter would indicate. It also shows that the latter, with a mean diameter of only 11 in. more than the former, is 587 years older, the difference arising from the greater thinness of its annual rings. This discrepancy could never have been detected without resorting to actual sections; and in this instance it may be owing to the Darley yew having fewer branches and less luxuriant foliage, in consequence, possibly, of its roots having been constantly mutilated by new- made graves ; a custom that ought not to be allowed. A thin- ner circle may also be caused by poverty of soil, lack of moisture, coldness of climate, or partial exclusion from air and light; for, where any of these operate, I suspect we shall always find a corresponding diminution of woody deposit. Even the plan of taking horizontal sections is liable, in the yew at least, to lead to great errors unless caution be used, and several sections be obtained. This arises from the great and constantly recurring inequality in the thickness and paral- lelism of the rings, both individually and collectively. This general character of the wood is probably the cause of the many prominences and recesses in the boles of old yews. The same ring is often two or three times thicker or thinner in a given point of the circle than in a neighbouring part; and a series or fascicle of rings will often alternately swell or di- minish together, while other series, both older and younger, will be thickest where the first were thinnest, and vice versa. This arrangement gives to their cross section an undulatory appearance, so beautiful in the polished wood, especially where the zones are deposited irregularly by the protrusion of branch- lets from the trunk. It also causes a line drawn across the section in the direction of the radius, to facilitate the counting of the rings, to pass so obliquely through some of them, that they appear to have two or three times their real thickness ; and makes it dangerous, where calculations are to be founded upon it, to trust to a single section. It is also necessary to count the number contained in an inch, in as many portions of the same section as possible, and then to strike a general Occurrence of Volida Lamberti on the Suffolk Coast. 35 average. There is also a great inequality in the width of some zones over others on the same side of the tree ; and those on the south are sometimes narrower than on the north : the former inequality is generally thought to be owing to a favour- able or unfavourable season ; but my own observations tend to discountenance such an opinion. I have several times fixed on a given ring, say the fifth, tenth, or twentieth, count- ing inwards from the one in contact with the inner bark ; and, on comparing it with that of the same year's growth in sections from other trees, have found considerable discrepancies. The alburnum also passes very unequally into the duramen, or heart-wood ; different portions of the same or of many con- tiguous rings being often found in each of these states. My experiments tend to show that, while De Candolle's average makes old yews to be younger than they are, it gives too great an age to those of more recent growth. For the latter, I think, we should not allow less than 2 lines of their diameter for annual increase, where the trunk has a less cir- cumference than 6 ft. ; and even 3 lines or more, if the tree is in a warm situation and a moist luxuriant soil. I have thought it desirable, at the risk of being tedious, to point out the several sources of error which attend the exa- mination of the yew, that others may avoid them ; though I strongly fear that no standard, either for old or young trees of this species, will ever be found generally applicable, where the nearest approach to truth is required. Actual sections must be resorted to, before we can pkce any confidence in the result.* (To be continued.) Art. VIII. Notice of the Occurrence of Volida Lamberti on the Suffolk Coast; with Observations upon its Claim to rank with existing Species. By Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S. It is in the study of fossil organisms, and in the cautious observance of the conditions under which they are presented * In taking the circumference of any old trees, and especially of the yew, whose trunk is often concealed by innumerable little shoots, and is subject to excrescences and inequalities, care should be taken to select that portion which has a medium thickness, and to pass the tape close to the bark; other- wise very erroneous results will be obtained. I had read somewhere that a yew in Llanfoist churchyard, Monmouthshire, had been measured by the writer, and was 33ft. in circumference; I was therefore disappointed to find that this measurement must have included a great arm or bough that proceeds from the very base of the trunk on the south side, and therefore formed no part of it. Even with this bough, the circumference, at 3 ft. high, is only 27 ft. 6 in. ; without it, the circumference of the real trunk, at the same height, is only 21 ft. 6 in. d 2 56 Occurrence of Valuta Lambert i on the Sujfblk Coast, to examination, in conjunction with those inferences which we draw from our knowledge of zoology and general physics, that the geologist finds the materials on which he speculates as to the changes and revolutions to which the surface of this planet has been exposed, and by which he chronicles the lapse of ages since the period when matter was first endowed with the principle of life. A careful consideration of the present condition of human knowledge, and especially of those de- partments of research to which our attention is directed, with a view of elucidating many geological phenomena, would seem rather to indicate a narrowing of the boundaries of legitimate induction than an extension of generalisations. Facts which bear upon any one subject cannot long accu- mulate without giving rise to numerous theoretical suggestions, and their reciprocal beneficial relation to each other is no longer a matter of dispute. Theory is often the great incen- tive to observation, the main stimulus to exertion, and the more widely those who are engaged in the prosecution of the same object differ amongst themselves as to the nature of their present conclusions, the greater, perhaps, would be the reliance which we should feel disposed to place in any points of common agreement that may hereafter be attained. But, although the progress of modern discovery may have a tendency to shake our confidence in some of the inferences which have been based upon the study of organic remains ; and though the practical geologist may, perhaps, find that the recognition of contemporaneous rocks through the medium of their embedded fossils is open to wider limits of error than he had previously supposed ; still, the zoologist must always find a source of never failing interest in the examination of these records of remote eras, and in the new structures and new types of form which are there presented to his view. The early readers of this Magazine will doubtless remember a series of highly interesting essays which appeared in its pages upon Fossil Zoology and Botany, in connexion with some general views on Geology, written by a most active and enterprising member of the Geological Society of London, Mr. Richard Cowling Taylor. In now taking up a depart- ment in natural history, the importance and interest of which have been so ably illustrated in those papers, my intention is occasionally to notice such fossils contained in my own col- lection, or the cabinets of others, as appear to me worthy of observation, either from their novelty as specimens, or from their suggesting any new considerations in a geological or zoological point of view. The Voluta Lamberti of the crag {Jig. 7.)? one of the most and iis Claim, to rank xtith existing I pw ibidw a#9n ^bia^da U:i9a9g hi ij9iBlua9qe 3tl dsitfw 9gqBl 9d.f eafoirurida diiw bswohao te,n Species. an &9BfiB tossiq ad) 1o aoijT^ ,* \\ W 'V-A -9b ssocfclo ylla jtfiy !*i.; f9s\^ 'dliw ebataaiib ni998 blnow ? instead of confining this explanation to the specific term paradoxus. Nor does he, in any part of his observations, hint at the real meaning of the generic appellation, although he remarks that, besides the name of Ornithorhynchus, it is more frequently called the " duck-billed animal," from the peculiar form of its beak, (p. 101.) No. 5., for December, was to have contained a figure of the kingfisher ; but the editors observe that the plates were so inaccurately and badly coloured, that they did not like to disfigure the work by their insertion. Now, we had rather see the commonest woodcut that illustrates some new fact in zoology, than five hundred such plates as those which have appeared in the Naturalist, Even looking at it as a mere matter of business, we think that a change of system wrould prove advantageous ; for the number of purchasers who are attracted by showy figures must be very few compared with those who support a publication upon the ground of its in- trinsic merit. We know, however, that the conductors of Gould's Birds of Australasia. 51 this work have in their possession, at any rate, one highly interesting drawing, and the publication of which has only been delayed from the difficulty of finding a person competent to describe the subject which it illustrates. In venturing to offer the above observations with reference to a contemporary periodical, we by no means flatter ourselves with the expectation that this Magazine will not be equally open to criticism, or even censure. We wish, however, to remark, that on all occasions we shall be most glad to avail ourselves of any improvements which may be suggested to us by the Naturalist, or by any other scientific Journal.* Art. II. A Synopsis of the Birds of Australasia. By John Gould, F.L.S., &c, Author of " The Birds of Europe," « The Birds of the Himalaya Mountains," &c. London, 1837. We have hastily looked over the plates of Mr. Gould's new work, which is announced for publication on the 2d of this month. The illustrations are executed in a style which cer- tainly will not lessen the author's high reputation as an artist and practical ornithologist. On a future occasion, we shall probably give this work a more detailed notice. In the mean time, an extract from the prospectus will convey a better idea of Mr. Gould's object in undertaking the above publica- tion, than any remarks of our own. " The Author therefore conceives that a work on the Birds of these countries cannot fail to be of the greatest interest, not only to the natu- ralist and scientific men of our own country, but to those of Europe and America, as well as to the inhabitants themselves of these distant colonies; and he is further induced to commence such an undertaking having at this moment in his possession an exceedingly rich collection, perhaps the finest extant, of the productions of these countries, among which are a large number of undescribed species ; and having also relatives resident there devoted to this branch of science. " The object of the present publication is, in the first instance, to make known and record in an eligible form the vast accessions which science has latterly acquired from this portion of the globe ; and, in order to render it of real value and utility to the men of science of all countries, the Author has determined upon giving, besides a Latin and English description, measure- ments, synonyms, &c, a figure of the head of the natural size of every spe- cies, a feature not to be found in preceding works of a similar nature, and by which each bird may at once be distinguished, hitherto a matter of some difficulty, particularly in those that are nearly allied. The work will be published in Parts, each of which will contain 18 Plates, with letter-press * Our animadversions upon the Naturalist will not be attributed to un- just motives, as our opinion of that work was known to its conductors before there was any prospect of a contemporaneous publication being placed in our hands. e 2 * 52 Woodcock, white Partridge. descriptions. The First Part will be published on the 2d of January, 1837, and will comprise Illustrations and Descriptions of Forty-four Species. " The size, Imperial 8vo ; and the price of each Part, 1/. 5s. coloured, 15s. uncoloured : to appear at intervals of Three Months. 9 It is impossible to state the precise number of parts to which the work may extend; the species now known to the Author, of which more than a third will be characterised for the first time in the present work, may be comprised in from 6 to 8 parts ; any extension, therefore, beyond that num- ber will contain still greater novelties, and will of course, be still more in- teresting. An arrangement with remarks on the different genera and the peculiarities of their forms, will be given either at the close or in the course of the publication, so that the work may be formed into volume^ \noYdVtV " Should the present publication meet that degree of support to which the Author trusts its merits will entitle it, he may be induced to undertake a still larger work on the same subject, similar in every respect to the " Birds of Europe," in which case he contemplates visiting Australia, New Zealand, &c, for the space of two years, in order to investigate and study the na- tural history of those countries, and endeavour, as far as practicable, to make himself acquainted with their natural habits and economy, of which at present but little is known." MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. Art. I. Short Communications. WOODCOCK shot in July. — On the ] 6th of July, Mr. Joshua Crompton shot in a spruce fir plantation near to his house, Sion Hill, near Thirsk, a male woodcock : it was in good condition, and weighed, when first killed, 10§ oz. Fie examined carefully the spot where he flushed it, but could find no traces of its having frequented the place previously. — W. H. Rud- ston Read. Temple, Nov. 18. 1836. White Patridge shot. — A curious specimen of the common partridge was shot on Thursday, Oct. 27., in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, the plumage of which was almost entirely white. It rose among a covey of thirteen ; and, after five un- successful attempts to get a shot at it (two of which times it would have escaped had not the plumage betrayed it as it was running), a single shot struck it in the wing, and pinioned it. The bird has since been stuffed by Mr. Gould. On my way to town, Archer, the coachman of the Buck- ingham coach informed me that two or three times this autumn he has seen, in the neighbourhood of Chalfont St. Peters, a rook flying and feeding among a flock of others, the wings of which were white, while the body appeared of the usual colour. I have since heard of one with a similar plumage having been seen in the neighbourhood of Up well, Cambridgeshire, by a friend of mine, who followed it with his gun, but was unable to get a shot at it. This was also among a flock of others. Is it probable that this was the same bird ? Organ of Time in Dogs. 53 or have either of these specimens been killed or noticed by any any of yonr correspondents ? Colonel Montagu, in his Ornithological Dictionary, men- tions four white partridges in one covey at Powderham, in De- vonshire. None of the other birds in the covey from which my specimen was shot had any apparent peculiarity in their plumage, while on the wing. We did not, however, succeed in killing any of them. — F. J. Ellis. Temple, Nov. 4. 1836. The Organ of Time in Dogs. — In Mr. Bell's admirable History of British Quadrupeds, p. 244., the following passage occurs : — " The power of dogs to mark distinct periods of time cannot be denied : there are many instances on record in proof of it ; but the following is detailed as having fallen under my own knowledge : — A fine Newfoundland dog, which was kept at an inn in Dorsetshire, was accustomed every morning, as the clock struck eight, to take in his mouth a certain basket, placed for the purpose, and containing a few pence, and to carry it across the street to a baker's, who took out the money, and replaced it by a certain number of rolls. With these Neptune hastened back to the kitchen, and safely deposited his trust; but, what was well worthy of remark, he never attempted to take the basket, or even to approach it, on Sunday mornings." Now, though I do not intend to deny that the lower animals are possessed of an innate organ of time, yet, possibly, the faculty of time may have had nothing to do in the above instance. Indeed, probably, the dog was rather apprised of the return of the Sunday by the different dress of the inmates of the house, or by various other cir- cumstances which might tend to point out to the intelligent animal the difference of the days. It would, at all events, be interesting to ascertain if quadrupeds have the power of marking distinct periods in so decided a manner as supposed by Mr. Bell. — Neville Wood. Campsall Hall, near Doncas- ter, Dec. 5. 1836. The Hedge Coalhood (Pyrrhula vulgaris) laying in Novem- ber.— On Nov. 15. a friend showed me a fresh-laid egg of the hedge coalhood, which he had found the day before on the road side near this place. The shell was quite perfect, and the egg differed in no respect from those deposited in the ordinary course. I never knew any egg laid by birds in a state of nature so long after the usual breeding season ; and those which I have found on the ground early in spring have generally been minus the shell. They are probably the pro- duction of young birds of the former year. (Id.) Late Singing of Birds. — The fact of birds being occa- sionally heard to sing, in mild seasons, throughout the winter, proves that the state of the weather has much influence in 54 Swan River Colony. causing them to exert their vocal powers. Thus, I have known the sky-lark and yellow bunting sing with consider- able spirit at the end of November. I have more than once heard the lively notes of the common goldwing (or " gold- jinch") on Dec. 21.; and those of the hedge coalhood (or u hxtifoich") in the middle of November. The ivy wren and robin redbreast will sing throughout the winter in fine weather ; and the song of the whin linnet, green grosbeak, and various other choristers, may be heard considerably after the period when the greater part of the feathered songsters have become comparatively mute. I might fill pages with facts and speculations on this interesting topic, but have neither the time nor the space for enlarging on it in this place. (Id.) Swa?i River Colony. — Our botanic garden here having been given up, I have determined, with the assistance of my sons, who are practical naturalists, to make collections of skins of quadrupeds, birds, &c, insects of all descriptions, seeds, and specimens of plants. Your inserting a notice to that effect in the Magazine of Natural History would much oblige me. Our flora here is of the most varied and beautiful description, the plants at King George's Sound being almost all different from those at Swan River. Persons requiring specimens of plants would be required to send paper to pack and dry them in, at least until we can get a sufficient supply of that article from London. To nurserymen who will favour us with any orders for seeds or bulbs of Orchidea?, or other plants, we will be particular to send only such as will repay them for their trouble. Any orders addressed to James Drummond and Sons, Swan River Colony, will be carefully attended to. — James Drummond. Swan River, Dec. 1835. New Tringa, shot near Yarmouth. — " On May 24. a new Tringa to this country was shot near Yarmouth, and is now in the collection of J. D. Hoy, Esq., from whom I received this information. The sex was noted at the time : it is the flat- billed sandpiper (Tringa platyrhyncha of Temminck) ; it is rather less than the dunlin, and appears intermediate between that bird and the Tringa pusilla." There wras also shot, during the past summer, a fine speci- men of the rose-coloured pastor (Pastor roseus Temm.) at Yarmouth, on some trees out of the North Gates. On Aug. 10. was shot, at Elvedon, near Thetford, a very beautiful spe- cimen of thedusky sandpiper (Totanus fuscus Leisler), orspotted redshank of Bewick. It was mounted by J. Reynolds of this town, and presented to the Norwich Museum by W. Newton, Esq., on whose estate it was killed. — J. D. Salmon. Thetford, Dec. 3. 1836. Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 55 Art. II. Proceedings of Scientific Societies. Meteorological Society. — Dec. 13. Dr. Birkbeck, Presi- dent, in the chair. Several highly interesting communica- tions were read on the tremendous gale that visited this island on Nov. 29. last : the most important were from the Rev. W. B. Clarke of Poole ; Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N., of the Observatory, Bedford ; the Rev. W. T. Bree of Allesley Rec- tory, near Coventry ; Mr. W. H. Campbell, Secretary to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh ; and Mr. J. G. Tatem of High Wycombe. From the manner in which the wind was observed to change its direction at various places during the gale, it was considered to belong to that class of hurricanes which tra- verse the western basin of the Atlantic. These hurricanes consist of a large body of air moving with considerable velocity round an axis which progresses in such a direction as to describe an elliptic or parabolic curve, the apex of the curve being situated about the parallel of the thirtieth degree of north latitude. It was requested that, on future occasions, observers would be careful to note particularly the phases of the storms, and the time when any change in the direction of the wind takes place. The following extract from a letter from the Rev. W. T. Bree was then read : — " On Oct. 1 1. last, between eight and nine, p. M., a bright band of light appeared in the sky, ex- tending over the entire vault of the heavens, in the direction of s. w. by w. to n. e. by e. It was about as broad as a rainbow, and brightest at the south-western extremity near the horizon. In a quarter of an hour, or less, it had entirely, but gradually, disappeared." This phenomenon was seen by other gentlemen present; and Mr. Birt stated that he ob- served it at London. It appeared to him as an arch or band of light, similar to the auroral arches, much broader than a rainbow, and extending from one side of the horizon to the opposite. The stars it passed over were Capella, the Pole Star, /3 Draconis, and p Herculis. The position of these stars on the evening in question would give s. w. by w. to n. e. by e. as its direction as seen from London. It had a perceptible motion towards the south, and was visible about a quarter of an hour. An interesting paper from the pen of Mr. Patrick Murphy (author of an excellent work on meteorology), anticipating the state of the weather during the approaching month of January, 1837, was next read. The author observed that the tendency of the weather throughout the month will be to drought ; about 56 Literary Notices. the 5th, if not earlier, frost may be expected to set in ; and the greatest cold may be expected to occur in the night of the 13th, or morning of the 14th, succeeded by a thaw. From this period to the 22d, the weather will be squally, with rain ; and this will be followed with frosty, dry, and harsh weather, till the end of the month. It was suggested that meteorologists should rigorously observe the phenomena during the month, and accurately record their observations, and also report them to the So- ciety, with a view to determine how far Mr. Murphy's " anti- cipations " may be proved to have been correct. At the next meeting, to be held on Jan. 10. 1837, Mr. Murphy will explain to the Society the courses of the late gales, their periodicity, and the method by which he prognosticates the changes of the weather for a period of twelve months in advance. Mr. Birt (author of Tabalcs Anemologiccz) explained the principles of his method of registering the direction of the wind, and other meteorological phenomena, by which the curves of variation are delineated in a manner that is calcu- lated to facilitate the comparison of the courses of the aerial current, either at distant points, or at periods long past. In the tables with which this method was illustrated, Mr. Birt directed the attention of the members to the circumstances that the curves presented similar portions, and that the same curves frequently reoccurred ; thus indicating that the phe- nomena are of a periodical nature. As a remarkable instance of this, he observed that the same curve was described in June, 1833, and June, 1836, the weather on both occasions being similar.* [Communications on subjects connected with meteorological phenomena, journals, &c, are requested to be addressed to the secretary, Mr. W. H. White, 4. Worship Square, Lon- don. — Ed.] Art. III. Literary Notices. In immediate preparation, a History of British Birds, in 2 vols., by Mr. Yarrell; and a History of British Reptiles, in 1 vol., by Mr. Bell. These works, with the British Fishes now finished, and British Quadrupeds now in course of publi- cation, will complete a uniform series of the vertebrate animals of Great Britain, in 6 vols. In the press, and will shortly appear, in one vol. 12mo, with numerous engravings, The Wonders of Geology, by Dr. Mantell, F.R.S. F.G.S., &c * We are indebted to Mr. White and Mr. Birt for the above report. THE MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. FEBRUARY, 1837. _ ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. -j Art. I. Remarks on a particular Form of Irritability observed in the Stems of many Plants, especially Exogens, evinced on divid- ing them in the Direction of their Axis. By Golding Bird, F.L.S. F.G.S., Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy at Guy's Hospital, &c. We are indebted to Dr. H. Johnson of Shrewsbury for the first notice of the very curious and interesting fact of the peculiar kind of vegetable irritability on which I am about to offer a few remarks. This gentleman observed that, "on dividing the stem of almost any herbaceous plant, a singular separation of the divided segments uniformly occurs; and that this separation continues until the stem withers and dies from the loss of its moisture." This discovery was made known by Dr. Johnson, in a memoir read before the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, and subsequently published in the Philo- sophical Magazine for March, 1835. If a portion of the stem of an herbaceous exogenous plant, but especially those with fistulous stems, as any of the La- biatae, be divided longitudinally, in the direction of the axis of the plant, the division extending to the length of about 2 in., the divided portions will instantly separate from each other to the distance of 1 in., or even more; this separation constantly occurring, in whatever direction the plant may be held. The same thing occurs if the young shoots of woody stems are substituted for those more strictly herbaceous; the young branches of the common privet (Ligustrum vulgare), as well as of the jasmine, and many others, possessing this property of diverging on being divided, in a remarkable manner. From a consideration of the facts thus briefly enumerated, Dr. Johnson was induced to attribute the cause of this di~ Vol. I. — No. 2. n. s. f 58 Irritability observed in the Stems of Plants, vergence to the vital irritability of the plants, in consequence of its absence in some which are very elastic, as in the rattan cane, and the dry and very elastic ligneous portions of the stems of plants. He appears to have been led to this con- clusion from the apparent necessity of attributing this phe- nomenon either to the physical elasticity, or to the vital " contractility " (? irritability) of the plant itself; and, cer- tainly, the fact of poisons preventing the developement of this divergent property appears to countenance this conclusion. But I think that the observations I am about to offer will be sufficient to show that this peculiarity may be explained on purely physical principles, independent of the necessary presence of vital agency ; for I apprehend that, in vegetable as well as in animal physiology, it too often happens, that calling in the aid of vitality to explain secondary effects (independent of ultimate causes) is little else than, in other words, a confession of our ignorance. I conceive that the separation of the divided portions of a stem may be explained on the same physical principles which Dutrochet has had recourse to, in his explanation of the irri- tability evinced by the valves of the seed-vessel of the Impa- tiens Balsamina, and the pericarps of Momordica Elaterium. And here I may be excused a momentary digression, for the purpose of giving a very brief outline of Dutrochet's dis- covery. This philosopher has shown that, when a fluid, as water, or a weak saline solution, is enclosed in an organised membrane, as a piece of bladder, or placed in a glass tube over which a piece of membrane is firmly tied, and immersed in a solution of sugar, the bladder or glass tube becomes rapidly emptied ; but if, on the contrary, the bladder or tube, be filled with syrup, and immersed in distilled water, the reverse takes place, the bladder becoming completely injected and turgid, and the tube filled with fluid; which, at last (if the tube be not too long), runs over. From these facts, amongst many others, M. Dutrochet was inclined to draw the following deductions: — 1. That, when a fluid of low specific gravity, enclosed in an organic membrane, is immersed in one of greater density, the membrane becomes rapidly emp- tied, in consequence of a current being set up from the lighter to the denser fluid (from within and without) ; and, 2., that, when a dense fluid is enclosed in a membranous reservoir, and immersed in a fluid of a lower specific gravity, a current is set up, whereby the membrane becomes distended by a sup- ply of fluid from without. The exceptions to these two rules are very few, and may at present be set out of the question. For the sake of convenience and conciseness of expression, when divided in the Direction of their Axis. 59 Dutrochet applied the term " endosmosis " to the current when established from within to without, and "exosmosis" when from without to within. Having premised these remarks explanatory of the nature of endosmosmic action, I shall proceed to apply them to the explanation of the phenomena of divergence, commencing with a very brief account of some experiments which I per- formed with the hope of eliciting more information on this point. 1. A piece of the fresh stem of Lamium album was divided longitudinally, in the manner already described, to the extent of three quarters of an inch : divergence immediately ensued, the upper portions of the segments separating to half an inch. 2. Another piece of a similar stem was treated in the same manner, and its utmost extent of divergence ascertained. It assumed the appearance shown in Jig, 8. It was then im- 10 mersed in distilled water : the divergence almost immediately increased ; and in half an hour the segments had curved in opposite directions, like the zodiacal sign of Aries {Jig, 9.) 3. The piece of stem used in the last experiment was removed from the water, and plunged into a weak solution of sugar : in the course of an hour the segments had lost their curvature, and soon after their divergence, approaching so closely as to touch each other. {Jig. 10.) By replacing the piece of stem in water, divergence again took place ; and so on repeatedly. 4. A young plant of Lamium album was placed in a vessel containing water mixed with hydrocyanic acid, so that the roots and lower part of the stem were immersed in the poisonous mixture. In twenty-four hours the leaves appeared drooping, and even yellowish at their tips, and the stem flaccid ; symp- toms sufficiently indicative of the poisonous influence exerted by the hydrocyanic acid on the plant. The upper part of W 2 60 Instability observed in the Stems of Plants, the stem was removed, and a longitudinal section made in the truncated portion : no perceptible divergence ensued. 5. The piece of stem used in the last experiment was placed in distilled water. In six hours the divided portions had separated to the extent of half an inch. On being removed, and immersed in syrup, the divergence gradually decreased, precisely as in the case of the stem which had not been sub- mitted to the deleterious influence of a poisonous agent. 6. Above 2 in. of the stem of Stachys palustris, removed at about 3 in. from its root, was left for some days on a glass plate exposed to the air. From the evaporation of its moisture, it withered, and, in a short time, became nearly dry. In this state, no one would hesitate to pronounce the portion of stem to be quite dead, or, at least, pretty well deprived of any thing approaching to vital irritability. A small piece of this dead stem was removed, and a longitudinal section made in its upper portion ; but not the slightest appearance of di- vergence ensued, 7. The remaining portion of the dried stem of the Stachys was placed in a weak syrup. In twelve hours it had absorbed a considerable quantity (? by capillary influence), and nearly regained its natural state of turgescence. A longitudinal incision was then made in its upper portion : divergence im- mediately ensued; and, on being immersed in water, the seg- ments separated, and became curved as in experiment 2. The above experiments were repeated with the stems and petioles of different herbaceous plants, and with similar re- sults. Let us now see what deductions can be fairly drawn from them. That the property of divergence does not depend upon " vital irritability," as assumed by its discoverer, is shown by experiments 5. and 7., in which the property was restored, by artificial means, to stems deprived of vital in- fluence, by being isolated from the plants bearing them, and submitted to the deleterious influence of a poison, or to desiccation. Finding that vital influence alone is insufficient to explain the cause of the phenomenon under consideration, we are compelled to have recourse to some physical agent. That this agent cannot be "elasticity" the observations of Dr. H. Johnson (op. sup. citat.) are more than sufficient to de- monstrate, seeing that the property of divergence is absent in the most elastic parts of plants, as true woody fibre, rattan cane, &c. ; and present in the most delicate herbaceous plants, as well as in the most inelastic ; as in the individuals of the family Thymelaceae. As, then, physical elasticity fails to explain the nature of divergence, we must seek for another more satisfactory cause; and this, I think, we shall find in when divided in Ike Direction of their Axis. (>1 the discoveries of Dutrochet. This acute investigator has shown that the valves of the pericarp of Impatiens Bal- samina (which, when mature, are well known to separate from each other, and become considerably curved, in such a man- ner that the convexity of the curve is on the epidermic, or external^ surface of the valve) are composed of a vesicular tissue, so arranged, that the vesicles, or cells, nearest the ex- ternal are considerably larger than those nearest the internal face of the valves; and, consequently, that each individual portion of the vesicular tissue, thus arranged, becomes injected from an accumulation of sap : all the cells, of course, become turgid, and the larger ones occupy, in consequence, a greater space than before. Their complete distention being, however, prevented by the more compact tissue formed by the aggre- gation of the minuter cells, the whole valve assumes a ten- dency to curve in such a manner, that the external portion, or that composed of the larger cells, may occupy the convex part of the curve ; and this tendency to curve is obeyed as soon as the resistance of the opposite valve is removed by a slight touch or otherwise. For a minute and elaborate account of this and other instances of irritability depending upon a similar vesicular structure, I must refer to the essay of M. Dutrochet. (Nouvelles Recherches sur V Endosmose, &c, 1828, p. 57. et seq.) no ?bnj3 This explanation of Dutrochet, for the separation of the valves of the pericarps of the balsam, may be applied, with but a slight modification, to the phenomena before us. If we make a thin transverse section of the stems or petioles of any plants possessing the property of divergence, as of a lamium, or of the common garden celery, and place it in a drop of water under a good microscope, we shall see a con- siderable quantity of vesicular tissue mixed with vessels. The vesicular tissue itself we shall find to be very compact, and composed of very minute cells, nearest the circumference, or external part, and of much looser tissue, made up of larger cells, nearest the axis, or central part, of the stem, or petiole ; presenting a similar anatomical structure to that of the peri- carps of the balsam, although arranged in an inverted di- rection. When, therefore, a stem possessing this structure is in perfect vigour, its vesicular tissue is injected with sap ; the larger cells nearest the axis of the plant become con- siderably distended, and, in consequence, press upon the neighbouring smaller cells; which, resisting this pressurej give to the larger cells a tendency to separate, and occupy a greater space in consequence of this distention ; their sepa- ration being, however, prevented by their intimate lateral f 3 62 Irritability in Stems of Plants on Division. organic connexion. But when this bond of union is severed, by an incision or otherwise, the segments instantly separate, and curve in such a manner, that the internal portions, or those made up of the looser vesicular tissue (i. e. cells of larger diameter), form the convex part of the curve, and thus have more room for their distention ; whilst the external portions, formed of more compact tissue, occupy the concave parts of the curve, in consequence of their not becoming dis- tended so early or readily as the tissue nearest the axis of the plant. This explanation is in perfect accordance with the result of experiment ; for, on immersing the piece of stem, when the segments have separated to a certain extent, in water, which is a fluid of lower specific gravity than the sap in the cells, endosmosis ensues, whereby a quantity of water is forced into the already turgid cells, which, consequently, become more distended, and the curvature increases ; and, on removing the piece of stem into syrup, a much denser fluid than sap, exos- mosis, for reasons already explained, ensues; the cells become emptied, and the separated portions recover their former rectitude ; the elasticity of the woody fibre present, also, pro- bably assisting. Why, then, it may be asked, should poisons prevent the developement of divergence, if it depends upon purely physical principles P To this question a very ready answer may be given ; for, as poisons diminish or destroy the vital energy of the plant, they prevent the cells becoming dis- tended with sap to an extent sufficient to cause their sepa- ration (and, consequently, that of the segments) on making a longitudinal incision ; but, on placing the piece of stem in water, endosmosis occurs ; the cells become completely in- jected, and the divergent property, consequently, developed* But when (as in experiment 7.) the piece of stem used had been previously desiccated, the cells, by evaporation, were nearly, if not completely, emptied of their sap; and it was necessary to fill them artificially with a tolerably dense fluid, as syrup, before they became sufficiently injected to cause the separation of the segments, on making a longitudinal incision. From a careful review of the phenomena connected with divergence, as well as of the experiments related by Dr. John- son (op. sup. cit.) and myself, I think that the conclusion I 'nave arrived at, in considering divergence to be the result of a purely physical action, independent of vitality, is fully justi- fied and borne out by the results of reasoning and experi- ment. Observations upon the Tarantula. 63 Art. II. Observations upon the Tarantula (Lycbsa Tarcntula). By M. Leon Dufour. (From the Annates des Sciences Naturellcs, 1835.) On ,-0 Ml) Ml Every one is aware that the name of tarantula has been given to a large spider observed, at first, more especially in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, in Italy, and which has become celebrated because it was supposed that the maladies arising from its reputed venomous bite might be cured by music and dancing. It is not my intention to write the history of this spider, and still less to retrace the fabulous stories related concerning it. With respect to these, we may have recourse to the works of Kircher, M'uller, Grube, Valetta, Mouffet, Aldrovandus, Bellon, Jonston, and, above all, the special dis^ sertation of Baglivi, published about the middle of the last century. In resolving, on the present occasion, to speak of the tarantula, I have no other end than to offer to science some positive facts arising from direct personal observation. It is, without doubt, a tardy homage ; for it is more than 20 years ago that, during my stay in Spain, I commenced collecting materials for this task ; but these facts, notwithstanding their ancient date, have appeared to me worthy of being brought to light; and, in setting myself to prepare them for publica- f 4 64 Observations upon the Tarantula. tion, I have been unavoidably led to give them at greater length, in order that they might accord with the present con- dition of science. Let us, at first, turn our attention to the determination of the species of the true tarantula. This spider belongs to the genus Lycosa, founded by Latreille. The southern coun- tries of Europe are the abode of a considerable number of species of this genus, which have never yet been studied suf- ficiently. But it must be confessed that this study is accom- panied with considerable difficulty, both because the species vary with respect to their size and the shades of their colours, according to their nge, and even according to their locality ; and because it is necessary, on account of the softness and changeableness of their texture, to observe them alive. Considered with regard to their habits (and these are a result, a consequence of their organisation), the Lycosae may be divided into two sections. Those of the first section, which are generally larger, more robust, and more industrious, in- habit subterranean intrenchments, regular burrows, which they dig for themselves. We might call these cunicular, or mining, Lycosae. Those of the second remain more ha- bitually upon the surface of the soil, and merely seek a refuge either in fissures in the earth, or among stones and tangled fragments. They would deserve the name of wandering, or vagrant, Lycosae. 9§ui The Lycosa which makes the principal subject of my ob- servations belongs to the first section. I have studied it in the different countries of Spain ; that is to say, in the centre of the Peninsula, at Madrid, at Tudela ; in Navarre, which is to the north ; in Valencia, situated to the east ; and I have re- ceived it fromCadiz, which is the southern point of Spain. The specimens of these last-mentioned places have not presented to me any traits which might constitute, in the eyes of a scru- pulous entomologist, I will not say species, but even remark- able varieties. There existed between them only some slight differences in the size of the body, or in the shades of the covering ; and often these variations are to be observed even in those of the same territory. From the comparison of dif- ferent specimens of this Lycosa, the conviction has arisen in my mind that it is the true tarantula of the ancients, that of all the authors who have written upon Tarentismus, that of Baglivi, Linnaeus, Fabricius, Olivier, &c. I hope shortly to impress the same conviction upon the minds of my readers. But, before I enter upon this critical examination, I will at- tempt a description and specific designation of the Lycosa in question. Observations upon the Tarantula, 65 ierfl59'i^ & fo Lycovsa Tare'ntula (Tarantula), j>%. II. Supra grisea nunc nigrescens nunc lutescens, marginibus pallidioribus ; cephalothorace plus minusve obscurius nebuloso ; mandibulis nigris basi antica grisescente ; abdominis dorso maculis geminis 2 — 3 semi-sagittatis Iineolisque posticis transversis nigris; subtus nigra, ventre atro-velutino marginibus anoque late intensive ochraceis; trochanteribus, femorum basi tibiarumque maculis duabus nigris, Aranea Tarantula Lin. St/st. Nat., 1035.25.; Fabr. Entom. Si/st., vol ii p. 423. ; Oliv. Encycl. MHh.y No. Lycosa melanogaster, Latr, Nouv. Hab. in aridis Europae australioris. Long. 10 — 14 liri. .-,% The cephalothorax, in specimens that are recently adult and very fresh, that is to say, not injured by friction, has on the upper side a bed of greyish hair, sometimes uniform, some- times displaying on each side of the central line a large longi- tudinal spot, which is more obscure, and which often appears only a dusky stain. Older specimens, or those which have been carelessly handled, have often the back of the cepha- lothorax stripped of its bed of hair ; and we see then the naked tegument, which is of a brownish colour. In every instance the edges of the trunk have a more decided tint of an ochreous or clayey grey. The part surrounding the eyes is bristled with a few upright hairs. The eyes, which, during life, have sometimes the colour of rubies, are either brown or inclining to black in dead specimens, with a pale circle at their base. The strong huge mandibles are of a shining black, except at their anterior base, which is covered with a down, more or less grey or ochreous in colour. The other parts of the mouth are black. The feelers have a tint of ochre, which is often vivid ; but they are always black at the extremity. The abdomen has a very obtusely oval form ; but it is more or less developed according to the sex of the individual, and to some accidental circumstances relating either to gestation or alimentary repletion. As in other spiders, that of the male is much the smaller, and in some wasted or feeble individuals it is often so reduced as to be disproportioned to the cepha- lothorax. The colour of its covering, as seen on the upper side, presents some variations. In old individuals, it is of a deep grey, bordering upon black: in recent adults, a yel- lowish grey, more or less spotted with black, predominates ; but the circumference is of a clearer ochreous grey. The two anterior thirds of the central part display two, rarely three, pair of half- arrowhead-shaped black spots, of which the point is directed backward. The hinder third is marked with trans- verse blackish lines, slightly curved. The under side of the body of the tarantula is black, which constitutes one of the 66 Observations upon the Tarantula. most striking of its specific marks. The abdomen is occu- pied by a large black spot, of a rounded oval shape, of a deep velvet-like black, bordered upon the sides by an ochreous tint, sometimes vivid, but never inclining to yellow. The region of the anus, that is to say, that which surrounds for a considerable space the brown disk from which the threads proceed, is also of an intense ochreous colour. The legs, which are strong and stout, are on the upper side of a uniform blackish or yellowish grey ; but below there are, always upon the second joint of the tibia, two black spots, more decidedly marked, from the clearness of the ground of yellowish grey which surrounds them. One of these spots occupies the base, and the other the extremity, of the joint just mentioned. The first encroaches upon the first joint of the tibia, or the knee-pan. The two joints which form the trochanter, as well as a great spot at the base of the thigh, and a small one at the extremity, are also black. The second joint of the tibia, and the first of the tarsi, are armed with rather long small spines, rigid, and movable upon their bases, which are of great use to the tarantula in seizing and retaining its prey. The knee-pan and the last joint of the tarsus are without these spines; but we find some upon the thighs. The tarsi of the two pair of anterior legs are supplied on the under side with a thick bed of hair, disposed like a brush, which is not observed upon any of the others. This brush is of use to the tarantula chiefly in per- forming its toilet, and to fasten itself when climbing up smooth surfaces. The two claws which terminate the tarsi are tole- rably stout, black, pectinated; that is to say, furnished within so as to spring from their bending, with a single row of five teeth, distinctly separated when viewed with a microscope. Let us see whether the spider which I have just described is the true tarantula, or, in other words, and without entangling ourselves in the labyrinth of an antiquated erudition, let us enquire if it be the Aranea Tarantula of Linnaeus, for the nomenclature of natural history goes back no further. Here are the exact words of the Swedish Pliny: — "Aranea subtus atra, pedibus subtus atro fasciatis." This description applies exactly to our Lycosa : the marks spoken of are the first which strike our eyes, especially when we are not able to observe this spider in a living state, and can consult only dead specimens, more or less deformed, or figures roughly executed. Now, Linnaeus must have found himself precisely in this latter case, when he collected the materials of his im- mense and monumental work, the Systema Naturce, There was no occasion for the colour of a lighter or darker grey, as Observations upon the Tarantula. 67 belonging to the back of the tarantula, to be defined by this author, because it is common to almost all spiders. As to the triangular spots which are observed on the hinder part of the abdomen, when the specimen under examination is fresh, they become so far effaced by the contraction of the dried integu- ments, that it is necessary to be aware of their existence to recognise any trace of them. I have at this moment before me many large specimens of our Lycosa ; and, if I had not formerly proved beyond doubt the shape and large size of these spots, I should have found it impossible to include them in the description of the species. Thus, in looking back to the time and the circumstances in which Linnaeus lived, we must pass over his silence with regard to the colour of the tarantula just described. Let us now examine the body of this Lycosa in its lower parts. The blackness of its mouth, of its breast, of the upper part of its legs, of the spots upon the front of its legs, and especially upon its abdomen, form a striking contrast with the grey of its upper part. The importance of this well-marked specific character has been appreciated by the eagle eye of the legislator of natural history ; and he has rightly made it the foundation of his laconic description. The ochreous colour which, in fresh specimens, is observed around the abdomen, and more particularly near the anus, grows faint, and ceases to become a striking mark of the species, when the skin is shriveled by drying. Finally, I shall add, to account for the circumstance of Linnaeus's having only de- scribed the characteristics furnished by the lower part of the spider, that, very probably, he supports himself by the figure of Olearius, which he cites. Now, following the testimony of M. Walckenaer, who is an authority of considerable weight in this matter, this figure of Olearius represents only the lower side of the tarantula ; and it is, according to him, very easily to be recognised, although but a rough sketch. As to the detestable figure of Baglivi, which, in the time of Linnaeus, had its value, and which, as M. Walckenaer relates, has been copied and recopied by a crowd of authors, even by Boccone and Albin, referred to also by Linnaeus, the tarentula there is sketched only on the upper side; and it is impossible to ob- serve any of the spots I have spoken of. The specific account of Fabricius, in his Entomologia Sys- tematica, as wreli as in his Species, published twelve years before, is expressed in these terms, relatively to the Aranea Tarantula : — " Abdominis dorso maculis trigonis nigris, pedi- bus nigro maculatis." In the same manner, the entomologist of Kiel, in explaining the most striking characteristic fur- 68 Observations upon the Tarantula. nished by the dorsal parts of the abdomen, seems to have had nothing in view but to complete the description of his master Linnaeus, which he quotes, word for word, at the end of his own. We must take particular notice, that these two founders of the science of entomology have said nothing which can lead us to presume the existence in the tarantula of a black stripe upon the abdomen. The species which they have mentioned is, without doubt, that which I have met with in ten places in Spain, and of which I here produce a figure. (Jig* 11.) The detailed description of the Aranea Tarentula which Olivier has given in his Encyclopedic Methodique, and which appears to have been taken from specimens he had himself observed in Provence, is adapted, in all points, to the one which is the subject of my paper. It is also the Linnaean species, the fundamental one. Latreille had at first (I know not upon what evidence, for he does not cite any authority), advanced, in the Histoire des Araignees, making part of Sonnini's Buffon, that the taran- tula of Linnaeus and Fabricius had the lower surface of the abdomen of a clear vermilion, with a black stripe crossing the centre. In his Genera, as well as in the second edition of the Nouveau Diet. $ Hist. Nat. ; in that of the Regne Animal of Cuvier (1829) ; and, finally, in his Cours d'Entomologie (1831), Latreille has confined his description to the Linnaean species, excluding the synonyme of Olivier. I think I have more than proved that Linnaeus, Fabricius, and Olivier had all three mentioned or described one and the same taran- tula, and that this is, in all respects, similar to the species which is the object of my present essay. Now, I repeat, the abdomen of the tarantula of these authors, and of mine, dis- plays neither any red or saffron colour, nor any stripe across the centre. Without disputing the existence of a species of Lycosa which shall be characterised by these last traits, I conclude merely that it is not the tarantula of Linnaeus. I regret very much my not being able to consult the recent figure in the Iconographie du Regne Animal, cited by Latreille, in his course of entomology, with reference to the species.* - * I met with a species of Lycosa, in December, 1831, under the stones on the barren mountains of Murviedro, in Valencia, which J find thus described in my notes : — " Lycosa fascii-ventris Nob. — Cinereo-grisea, abdominis dorso maculis triangularibus nigris coadunatis ; ventre ochraceo fascia in medio transversa atra lateribus unidentata. This species is smaller than the true tarantula, which it very much resembles. However, I have Observations upon the Tarantula. 69 - This author has described, in the second edition of the dictionary before referred to, under the new name of Lycosa melanogaster, a species to which he refers both the Araignee Tarentule of Olivier, and the Lycose narbonaise of M.Walcke- naer, and, I should almost say, my tarentula also ; since, as he has been so good as to inform me, he devotes an article of some length to the description of some specimens of it which ■I had transmitted to him during my stay in Spain. The cor- respondence admitted by Latreille between these species is correct; but I think that we must add to them those of Lin- naeus and Fabricius, and, finally, substitute the name of Taren- tula for the epithet melanogaster. For the same reason, the Lycosa described by Latreille under the name of Tarentula, and which has a black stripe in the centre of the abdomen, ought to receive another name, and, perhaps, will not differ from that which I have called, in the preceding note, fascii- ventris. 179 indv/ noqu ion won^I 1) iei I think I have made all which relates to the describing, the determining the species, and the recognising, of the taran- tula, sufficiently clear. It now remains for me to bring for- ward facts relative to its habits and mode of life, arising from my own observations; facts which may be depended upon as positive and authentic, because I have been careful to pre- serve them in writing at the time. These are the materials which may serve to complete the history of this celebrated spider. The Lycosa inhabits, from preference, exposed places; dry, barren, uncultivated, and open to the sun. It hides itself, generally, at least when it is full grown, in underground passages, complete burrows, which it digs for itself. These burrows, though noticed by many authors, have been im- perfectly apprehended and studied. Cylindrical, and often 1 in. in diameter, they are sunk more than 1 ft. in the soil. But they are not simply perpendicular, as has been advanced. The inhabitant of the trench proves that he is, at the same time, a skilful hunter and an able engineer. It was neces- sary, not only that he should construct a deep intrenchment, which might hide him from the pursuit of his enemies ; he must also establish there a place of observation, from which he could spy out his prey, and dart, like an arrow, upon it. The tarantula has foreseen all. The subterranean passage has, in effect, at first, a vertical direction ; but, at 4 in. or seen specimens which were ten lines in length. The black stripe which crosses the centre of the abdomen presents, on each side, at its lower end, a little tooth-shaped projection. 70 Observations upon the Tarantula. 5 in. from the surface, it turns in an obtuse angle, forms a horizontal bend, and then reassumes the perpendicular. It is at the commencement of this bend that the Lyedsa, esta- blished as a vigilant sentinel, never for a moment loses sight of the door of his dwelling ; and it was there that, at the time 1 was seeking him, as I shall proceed to relate, I perceived his eyes, glittering like diamonds, rendered bright, like those of a cat, by the darkness. The exterior orifice of the taran- tula's burrow is ordinarily surmounted by a funnel con- structed altogether by itself, and which no author has mentioned. This funnel, a true piece of architecture, rises about I in. above the surface of the soil, and is sometimes 2 in. in diameter ; so that it is larger than the burrow itself. This last circumstance, which looks like a piece of fore- thought in the industrious spider, is of wonderful use, in the necessary extension of its legs, at the moment when it is about to seize its prey. This funnel is principally composed of fragments of dry wood united by a little clay, and dis- posed one upon another, in such an artist-like manner, that they form a scaffolding in the shape of an upright column, of which the interior is a hollow cylinder. What establishes most firmly the solidity of this tubular edifice, of this ad- vanced bastion, is, that it is lined, tapestried within by a tissue formed of the threads of the Lycosa, and which is con- tinued through the whole interior. It is easy to conceive how useful this skilfully fabricated drapery must be, both in preventing the crumbling in of the earth, or any such acci- dent to the structure, and for the maintenance of its order, and, also, to assist the tarantula in scaling his fortress. I have admitted that this outer fortification of the burrow does not always exist : indeed, I have often met with the holes of tarantulas where no traces of it could be seen. Possibly, in these instances, it might have been accidentally destroyed by unfavourable weather ; or the Lycosa might not always meet with materials for its construction ; or, perhaps, the talent for architecture only declares itself in individuals arrived at the last stage of physical and intellectual developement. Never- theless, it is very certain that I have had numerous oppor- tunities of proving the existence of these funnels, these outworks of the tarantula's abode. They illustrated to me, on a larger scale, the cases of some of the Phryganese. This spider has had many purposes to answer in its con- struction. It not only protects its intrenchment from inun- dations, and fortifies it against the falling of external bodies, which, swept by the winds, would be likely to close it up, but it also serves as an ambush, by offering to flies, and other Observations upo?i the Tarantula. 7 1 insects upon which the tarantula feeds, an enticing resting- place. Who shall tell us all the stratagems employed by this adroit and intrepid hunter ? The tarantula is not the only species of Lycosa which raises an edifice of masonry above the entrance of its subter- ranean dwelling. The Lycose habile (Licosa perita Latr.\ discovered by Latreille in the environs of Paris, has also, according to this author, the habit of constructing a little conical and taffetied funnel of extraneous materials, earth, &c. (Lair., Cows cVEntom., torn. i. p. 537.) We will now give some account of the search after the tarantula, which is amusing enough. The months of May and June are the most favourable season for making it. The first time that I discovered the holes of this spider, and had satisfied myself that they were inhabited, by perceiving him stationed at the first stage of his dwelling, which is the bend that I have already described, I thought the best way to obtain possession of him would be to attack him by open force, and follow him to the termination of his burrow. I passed whole hours opening the intrench ment with my knife, in order to sack his domicile. I dug to the depth of more than 1 ft., over a space 2 ft. in width, without meeting with the tarantula. I recommenced my operation in other holes, and always with as little success. I ought to have had a pick-axe to attain my end ; but I was far from any house, and in Spain. I was then obliged to change my plan of attack ; and I had recourse to stratagem. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. It occurred to me to take, by way of bait, a stalk surmounted by a spikelet, and to shake it and rub it gently against the opening of the hole. I was not long in perceiving that the attention and desire of the Ly- cosa was awakened. Tempted by this lure, he advanced, with a slow and irresolute step, towards the spikelet ; and, upon my drawing it back a little out of the hole, in order to leave him no time for reflection, he frequently used to throw him- self, at one spring, out of his dwelling, the entrance of which I instantly closed. In this case, the tarantula, greatly discon- certed to find himself unable to regain his domicile, was very awkward in his attempts to elude my pursuit; and I obliged him to take up his quarters in a piece of paper, in which I instantly shut him up. It sometimes happened that, suspecting the snare, or, per- haps, less pressed by hunger, he held back, immovable, at a little distance from his door, which he did not judge it ad- visable to pass, until my patience was completely exhausted. When this occurred, these are the tactics I made use of: — ) 2 Observations upon the Tarantula, After having well observed the direction of the hole and the position of the spider, I drove in with force, and in an ob- lique direction, the blade of my knife, in such a manner as to surprise the creature behind, and cut off his retreat by stop- ping up his hole. I seldom missed my stroke, especially in soil which was not stony. In this critical situation, either the tarantula, terrified, quitted his covert to make his escape, or he persisted obstinately in remaining driven up against the blade of the knife. Upon this, causing the knife to make a sudden sweep, I threw out both the earth and the Lycosa, and seized upon the latter. By employing this method of capture, I sometimes took as many as fifteen tarantulas in an hour. In some circumstances, when the tarantula was quite aware of the deceit which I was practising, I have been not a little surprised, on my pushing in the spikelet so as to even touch him in his den, to see him play with it with a sort of contempt, and push it back with his claws, without giving himself the trouble to seek the farther end of his retreat. The Apulian peasants, from Baglivi's account, also hunt the tarantula, imitating, at the mouth of the hole, the humming of an insect, by means of an oaten stalk. " Ruricolae nostri," he says, "quando eas captare volunt, ad illarum latibula accedunt, tenuisque avenaceae fistulae sonum, apum murmuri non absimilem modulantur, quo audito foras exit tarantula ut muscas vel alia hujusmodi insecta, quorum murmur esse putat, captat ; captatur tamen ista a rustico insidiatore." (Baglivi, Opera Omnia, p. 356.) The tarantula, frightful as it is at first sight, especially when one is impressed with the idea of danger from its bite, and shy as it appears, is yet very capable of being tamed, as I have many times found by experience. Here, perhaps, I may be allowed to recount, in few words, the history of one of these Lycosae, which I kept alive for more than five months. On May 7. 1812, during my stay at Valencia, in Spain, I took, without hurting him, a tarantula of tolerable size, which I imprisoned in a glass covered over with paper, in which I had made a square opening. In the bottom of the glass I had fixed the roll of paper in which I had carried him, and which was to serve him for a dwelling. I placed the glass upon a table in my sleeping-room, that I might have frequent opportunities of watching him. He quickly accustomed him- self to his cell, and ended by becoming so familiar, that he would come to eat out of my fingers the living fly that I brought him. After having given his victim its death wound with his jaws, he did not content himself, like most spiders, with sucking the head, but bruised all its body by plunging it Observations upon the Tarantula. 73 successively into his mouth with his feelers. He then threw away the triturated remains, and swept them to a distance from his hiding-place. After his repast, he seldom omitted attending to his toilet, which consisted in brushing, with the tarsi of his anterior legs, his feelers and mandibles, without as well as within ; and, having done this, he resumed his attitude of immovable gravity. The evening and night were his times of walking and attempting to escape. I often heard him scratching against the paper of his prison. These nocturnal habits confirmed the opinion I have already advanced, that the greater number of spiders have, like cats, the faculty of seeing by night as well as by day. The 28th of June, my tarantula changed his skin ; and this moult, which was the last, did not alter, id any perceptible manner, either the colour of his covering or the size of his body. The 14th of July, I was obliged to leave Valencia; and I remained absent till the 23d. During this time the taran- tula fasted. I found him quite well upon my return. The 20th of August, I was again absent for a period of nine days, which my prisoner supported without food, and without any alteration in his health. The 1st of October, I again left the tarantula without any provision. The 2 1st of this month, being twenty leagues from Valencia, where I was about to remain, I sent a servant to bring him to me. I had the regret of finding that the vase which contained him was no where to be met with ; and I could not learn his fate. I shall terminate my remarks upon the tarantula by a short description of a singular combat between these creatures. In the month of June, 1810, one day, when I had been success- ful in my search after the Lycosoe, I chose two full-grown and very vigorous males, which I put together into a large vase, that I might witness the spectacle of a mortal combat. After having many times made the circuit of their arena, in the endeavour to shun each other, they hastened, as at a given signal, to set themselves in a warlike attitude. I saw them, with surprise, taking their distance, and gravely rising upon their hind legs, so as to present to each other the buckler formed by their chests. After having looked each other in the face for about two minutes, and, without doubt, provoked each other by glances which I could not discern, I saw them throw themselves upon one another, entwine their legs, and endeavour, in an obstinate struggle, to wound each other with the hooks of their mandibles. Either from fatigue, or by mutual consent, the combat was for a while suspended : there was a truce for some seconds; and each wrestler, retiring to a Vol. I. — No. 2. n. s. g H Some Observations on the Oak. little distance, resumed his menacing posture. This circum- stance reminded me that in the single encounters of cats there were also suspensions of arms. But the struggle was not long in recommencing, with more fury than before, be- tween our two tarantulas. One of them, after victory had been a long time doubtful, was at length overthrown, andf mortally wounded in the head ; he became the prey of the vanquisher, who tore open his skull, and devoured him. After this murderous combat, I kept the victorious tarantula alive for many weeks. I have been forestalled by Baglivi in the description of this arachnomachy ; and, though he does not enter into any detail, his suffrage upholds my observations. Here are the words of this author : — "Si duae solummodo tarantulas' in aliquo vase claudantur, altera alteram interficit et comedit brevi temporis intervallo." (Baglivi, I.e., p. 356.) $rft lo- eJiiscf auoflifiiiiiiorii oiii gnornlk \es-ii ?oik9J&fti Knis I iud ;• yllifti jnalq sfT'J ■.& edi ^isbiod itefeW". i teaeta T^ n oJhwotb ano wg_> lava I tedLen&wB ion mo Art. III. Some Observations on the Oak. By Von Osdat. Behold the forest, and th' expansive verdure Of yonder level lawn, whose smooth shorn sod !(W/ • 1 No obJect interrupts, unless the oak/ /j(BOy ^^ ° n^Aaf His lordly head uprears, and branching arms Extends. Behold, in regal solitude^, ™™B2 ™ >«*" 90* And pastoral magnificence he stands*! Qtit fyOTg *2i*do[Uildl So simple! and so great ! the underwoods . , Of meaner rank an awful distance kegj^ fa edy m iaBy If any pleasure can be called bright, beautiful, and lasting, it surely is a love of nature, particularly of the green things that clothe the earth's surface: the contemplation of them gives a tone of health and freshness to the mind, and the cul- tivation of them vigour to the body. They afford occupation in our youth, and a delightful source of calm enjoyment in our after years. They serve as living and lasting memoranda of our pleasures and our sorrows; and, when the silent hand of Time has " wede away " the companions of our youth and the friends of our manhood, the trees we have planted remain to us in all their increased and increasing loveliness and beauty. It is an absolute duty, that every one should till his paternal patch of ground : the size makes little difference in the pleasure ; and the interest taken in this rational and active enjoyment has a greater tendency to lead the feelings to real and permanent happiness than many persons may imagine. I have taken a fancy to three of our native plants ; a tree, a shrub, and a flower : although all the others are either beautiful or interesting, still, more particularly (in part, Some Observations on the Oak. 75 perhaps, from association), I love these three; the oak, the ivy, and the hare-bell. The two latter being only ornamental, it is of the oak I intend to make some few observations. Of all our forest trees, not one so much deserves the attention of the naturalist and planter as the oak. In every state, from the seedling plant to the last stage of decay, this beautiful and majestic tree solicits admiration from the eye of taste, as well as the less refined calculations of the speculator of profit. Botanists have given two species of the oak, Quercus Robur (common British oak), and Quercus sessiliflora (sessile-fruited oak) ; but both species sport in infinite varieties. It has been the opinion of some planters, that the wood of the sessiliflora is inferior in quality to the Robur ; and I am inclined to favour that opinion myself. I think it will be found, on examination, that the wood of the Robur is more dense and compact than the sessiliflora, and grows into a more noble and majestic tree. Among the mountainous parts of the Welsh borders, the sessiliflora grows very plentifully ; but I am not aware that I ever saw one grown to a very great size, although I have seen some, to all appearance, of great age. The beauty and utility of the oak appears to have been ap- preciated by the Druids, from which their appellation is taken : derm (oak), Welsh ; darach, Gaelic ; and of which the llan, or sacred grove, was chiefly composed. On its branches grew the mystic mistletoe, used at their solemn rites ; and, as now, no doubt the mistletoe was more abun- dant on the crab and hawthorn than on the oak, some pecu- liar virtue was attributed to the one rather than the other, from the beauty or utility of the tree upon which the para- site grew. This, probably, I may be allowed to infer, as, under the patched investiture of ancient mythological rites, we may easily trace a veneration for certain plants and ani- mals that were of service to, or that held an influence over, the moral and physical condition of man. Its utility to our British ancestors must have been very great; for the fruit (however astringent and unpalatable it may be to a modern appetite) formed a portion of their food, and the rifted logs their chief article of firing. It seems to be lord of the soil, and more adapted to our clime than any other denizen of the forest. Unless in the neighbourhood of the sea (a most un- happy situation for any tree), it never shows a " weather side to the storm." When the acorn begins to germinate, the radicle, or what planters term the taproot, very deeply strikes into the earth, and anchors itself safely in its place ; and this is done long before the stem has risen from the coty- ledons but a comparatively short length, perhaps not one e 2 76 Some Observatio?is on the Oak. fourth as long as the radicle ; as though instinctively aware, in embryo, of the howling storms and beating blasts which, in after-life, its massy arms are doomed to contend with. Planters are aware of this circumstance; and, when the acorns are dibbled in beds, they are generally transplanted after the second year's growth ; for, should they remain longer, it is next to impossible to get them up without injury to the taproot; and, if this be done, the plant rarely after- wards thrives well. This is the reason why self-sown trees, particularly the oak, grow better and more freely than those which have been removed. The acorns form the food of some of the gallinaceous birds; and I have commonly observed rooks fly away with them in their bills, and more frequently drop them in their flight, than any other sort of food I have seen them carry, owing, no doubt, to the polished smoothness of the outside capsule ; and I have often observed fields freely planted by this means. About the middle of the merry month of May, generally, the gradual expanding of the crimpy yellowish foliage of the oak presents a most refresh- ing and beautiful feature in our landscape, and gives a rich- ness and mellow relief to the vivid and more dazzling green of the woods ; while its extended and twisted arms, thickly curled and matted branchlets, form a dark and harmonious contrast beneath. It does not, as the sycamore and many other trees of rank and lush foliage, burst suddenly into leaf; but, as the season advances, expands to the blessed and balmy gales, deepened in its tint, and more mature in its aspect. The wood, formerly, when much more* plentiful, was applied to almost all purposes where wood was wanting for durability and strength, particularly of household furniture and building. Few persons, I think, can look without feel- ings of admiration and pleasure on the now blackened, but beautifully carved, wainscoting in some of the ancient halls of our baronial ancestors ; or see the heavy old oak table, with its massive carved legs and framework, without con- juring up in fancy the great wassail bowl circulating round it, amid the boisterous mirth and happy hearts of the rude and merry wassailers. The contrast is very great indeed between this sort of furniture and the flimsy and luxurious kickshaws of a modern hall or drawingroom; where every thing of native growth, worth, or beauty, is kicked out, to make room for foreign tinsel, or something worse. In some of our old churches may be seen fine specimens of the durability of the oak in the great beams and rafters : they, untouched by the tooth of Time, or the burrowing of the worm, have stood for ages; have seen creeds change and dynasties alter, and, pro- Psychological Distinctions between Man and Animals, 77 bably, may see them again and again. But there is one purpose for which the British oak stands alone, unrivalled in the world, the purpose of ship-building. As adapted to this, it has been the boast of our country, and the terror of our foes ; lauded in lyric strains, from the ingle side of the humble mud cabin to the princely halls of the noble ; and well in- deed is it merited. ■ " Britannia needs no bulwarks, No castles on the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain waves, Her home is on the deep." The bark of the oak is of very great value as an article of commerce, from the astringent principle called tannin^ which it contains in much larger proportion than the bark of any other tree. This ingredient, as is well known, it is, with which the raw hide is saturated in the process of tanning, preserved, and fitted for sale and use. The value of the bark, for the purposes of trade, depends very much on the age ; as that which is peeled from the full-grown and healthy tree contains much more of the requisite principle, than either the sapling, or that which is old, gnarled, or decaying. The bark on the healthy growing tree, although rough, rugous, and seamed, is by no means unsightly to look upon; but has a fitness and adaptation, as the external covering of the majestic bulk which it envelopes. And, oh, what a grapple it affords for the ivy, with its smooth, bright, and glinting leaves (for ever green), to creep up the trunk, and enring itself round the barky fingers, and, grateful for the protection it receives, deck it in garlands of beauty in the last stage of decay ! Art. IV. On the Psychological Distinctions between Man and all other Animals ; and the consequent Diversity of Human In- fluence over the inferior Ranks of Creation, from any mutual and reciprocal Influence exercised among the Latter. By Ed- ward Blyth, Esq. (Continued from p. 9.) Man only, by the habitual exercise of his reasoning powers, appears to be competent to trace effects to their remote causes ; and is thereby enabled to recognise the existence of abstract laws, by assuming the guidance of which he can intentionally modify their operation, or, from observation, convert them to a means of accomplishing his various ends. It it thus he wields the principle of gravita- tion ; and it is thus, from studying the inherent propensities g 3 78 Psychological Distinctions and consequent habits of other animals, that, by judicious management, he contrives to subdue their instincts (as in the case of the elephant just mentioned), or to direct their force towards effecting other purposes than those for which they were more legitimately designed. But a more remarkable sequence of human interference is, that, by removing animals from their proper place in nature, and training them to novel modes of life, wherein the field for the exercise of their ori- ginal instincts becomes much limited, their faculties of ob- servation and reflection are, in consequence, brought more into play, in proportion as the former are rendered inefficient; till, at length, experience not unfreqUently supersedes innate impulse as the main spring of their actions ; more especially where they have become attached to a human master, and pass much of their time in his society. Yet even here the difference between man and brute is still manifest, in the transmission of acquired knowledge by generation, in the off- spring inheriting as innate instincts the experience of their parents * ; so that the tendency of brutes is ever to become slaves to a certain amount of intuition, rather than beings dependent on their own intelligence. And here we recognise a fundamental principle of do- mestication, which is only gradually induced to any extent through a series of generations. Thus the elephant, though tamed, is not domesticated, for every individual is sepa- rately captured in a wild state ; and we have seen that, when one of these returns to its proper haunts, its natural instincts having been only for a time subdued and rendered subservient (not eradicated), these have again become the incentives to its conduct, to the exclusion of those reasoning faculties which had only been excited into action under cir- cumstances adverse to the efficient operation of the former. Far otherwise is what we observe in animals truly domes- ticated : witness the opposite conduct of even the newly hatched progeny of a wild and domestic duck, though * Propensities are similarly transmitted in the human race, but cer- tainly not the knowledge of how these are to be gratified. It is true, however, that our observation in these matters is too much confined to cultivated, domesticated man, who is, consequently, farthest removed from the brute Creation. The Australian savages are known to have a great penchant for snails and caterpillars ; and I have somewhere read of one of these who had been brought up in a town, and carefully kept away from all communion with others of his race, who, nevertheless, exhibited the same fondness for these dainties, despite the abhorrence with which all his companions regarded them. His gout for them must thus unquestionably have been hereditary; though it is probable he may have learned the fact of their being eaten by his race, which, likely enough, induced him to taste and try them. between Man and all other Animals. 79 by the same bird. But here a question arises, it, as, numerous instincts in domestic animals, which are now hereditary, are known to have been originally habits superinduced by man's, agency, to what extent may not all the innate propensities and consequent habits of animals have originated in the acquired experience of their predecessors ? ,. As with all other subjects, we must trace the series up- ward from: its more, simple phases. In the insect world, we discern the most complicated instincts; modes of procedure of which the consummate wisdom excites our admiration and amazement, and bearing reference to a future generation, in beings which are but creatures of an hour. Can it be sup- posed possible that the progenitors of these derived their habits from acquired experience, and transmitted them as innate instincts to their posterity ? Here we must ascend to a higher source, which, being admitted, the marked uni- formity, also, of the instinctive habits of all wild animals^ before commented on, warrant us in concluding that these were from the first imprinted in their constitution, and may, therefore, be legitimately esteemed as forming part of the specific character.* ^sgHfelnf.nw* t «k , fine tendency or human influence is every where to destroy whatever conduces not to man's enjoyment, as superfluous, and only cumbering the ground ; but to secure, by every means the reasoning faculties can suggest, a due continuance and never-failing supply of all that tends to the gratification of our species. Brutes, on the contrary, evince indifference to whatever does not immediately concern them ; and although, practically, their influence upon their prey is for the most part decidedly conservative, yet they individually continue to de- stroy without reflection, and endeavour not, by any forbearance, or plan resulting from reasoning, to insure the perpetuity of their provision. That the squirrel or jay should instinctively plant acorns is, of course, nothing whatever to the purpose : we have already tested the sagacity of the former animal; and we know that the latter, removed from its proper office in wild nature, will bury a bit of glass or clipping of tin as care- fully as it does a seed. It may be worth while to devote a few remarks to the con- sideration of the unintentional agency of brutes, towards not only preventing the over-increase of their prey, which would only lead to too much consumption of the food of the latter, and so bring about famine and consequent degeneration from * The reader will observe that the doctrine here controverted is but an application of the exploded hypothesis of M.Lamarck. g 4 80 Psychological Distinctions insufficiency of nutriment, but likewise towards preserving the typical character of their prey in a more direct manner, by removing all that deviate from their normal or healthy condition, or which occur away from their proper and suitable locality, rather than those engaged in performing the office for which Providence designed them. In illustration, it will be sufficient to call attention to the principle on which many birds of prey are enabled to discern their quarry. When the tyrant of the air appears on wing, his dreaded form is instantly recog- nised by all whose ranks are thinned for his subsistence ; and instinct prompts them to crouch motionless, like a portion of the surface, the tint of which all animals that inhabit open places ever resemble ; so that he passes over, and fails to dis- criminate them, and seeks perchance in vain for a meal in the very midst of abundance ; but, should there happen to be an individual incapacitated by debility or sickness to maintain its wonted vigilance, or should its colours not accord suffi- ciently with that of the surface, as in the case of a variety, or of an animal pertaining to other and diverse haunts, that creature becomes, in consequence, a marked victim, and is sacrificed to appease the appetite of the destroyer : so pro- foundly wise are even the minor workings of the grand system ; and thus do we perceive one of an endless multiplicity of causes which alike tend to limit the geographical range of species, and to maintain their pristine characters without blemish or decay to their remotest posterity. Thus it is that, however great may be the tendency of va- rieties to perpetuate themselves by generation, we do not find that they can maintain themselves in wild nature; nor do the causes which induce variation, beyond the occasional and very rare occurrence of an albino, prevail in those natural haunts of species to which their structural adaptations bind them. We have already noticed the anomalous influence of human interference in altering the innate instincts of the lower ani- mals, thereby unfitting them to pursue the mode of life fol- lowed by their wild progenitors. It would be needless to amplify on the concomitant effects produced by domestication on the changes in the physical constitution and adaptations of the corporeal frame of animals, which oftentimes render them dependent on human assistance for continuous support, in the degree of their domesticity. Such changes are equally im- posed on the vegetable world by cultivation ; and they every where mark the progress of man, and exhibit in indisputable characters the diversity of his influence over the inferior ranks of creation, from any mutual and reciprocal influence observable among these latter. I may cursorily allude to hybridism also, as a phenomenon, between Man and all oilier Animals. 8 1 so far as can yet be shown, at least in animals, where fecun- dation cannot happen fortuitously, in every instance referable to human interference. As yet, I have failed to meet with a single satisfactory instance, wherein commixture of species could not be directly traced to man's agency, in superimposing a change on the constitution of the female parent. This is a subject of exceeding interest ; and I am glad to avail myself of every occasion to endeavour to incite some to undertake its further investigation. There can be little doubt that cer- tain of our domestic races, as the common fowl, are derived from a plurality of species, which, however, do not blend in wild nature ; so that their union (assuming the hypothesis to be correct) may here, at least, be fairly ascribed to domestica- tion. Still, when we consider that separate species (i. e. races not. descended from a common stock) exhibit, as is well known, every grade of approximation, from obviously distinct to doubtfully identical, there appears, I think, sufficient rea- son at least to suspect that circumstances may sometimes combine to induce those nearest allied to commingle. That the mixed progeny, too, would in some instances be mutually fertile, I know in the case of the hybrid offspring of the A'nser cygnoides, and the common goose ; but, in birds gene- rally, the converse nevertheless obtains, as is particularly instanced, I have learned, by the hybrid Fringillidse reared in confinement ; and also the mule betwixt the common fowl and pheasant; the males of all which appear (from a variety of instances I have been fortunate in collecting) to have been incompetent to fecundate the eggs produced.* Perhaps the superior size, too, of these hybrids generally to that of either of their parent species may be explicable on the principle which occasions the large growth of capons. However, none of the species here alluded to are by any means so closely allied as many that are known to exist ; and, therefore, as in the vegetable world the degree of fertility in hybrids is in the ratio of that of affinity between the parents, those derived from very approximate species being, apparently, quite as pro- lific as the pure race, analogy would lead us to infer that the same law holds in the animal creation. At present, we have no proof of it: and I may conclude the subject by observing that the cases of supposed union (apart from human influ- ence) betwixt the carrion and hooded crows, so often insisted on, are inconclusive, inasmuch as it does not appear that the individuals were ever examined and compared, although black varieties of Corvus Cornix have been several times known to occur. Indeed, I have myself examined a female specimen, * Since writing this, I have been informed of a solitary instance of a male goldfinch mule producing offspring with a hen canary. 82 Psychological Distinctions on which were several black feathers intermingled with the ordinary ash colour on the back.* nli oi noiteltn ni bsainfi^'io The agency of the human race has been likened to that of brutes, in the particular that, as man effects the destruction of one species, he necessarily advances the interests of another, f How far he may permanently benefit the latter, might be dis- cussed on principles that have been already expounded. More able writers, however, have put the enquiry whether man, by taking certain plants, for instance, under his protection, and greatly extending their natural range by cultivation, does not thereby unintentionally promote the welfare of the various species which subsist upon them. But, will it be argued that man, by vastly increasing the breed of sheep, is unconsciously labouring for the advantage of the wolves ? As little can it be concluded, regarding the human race as progressive (in which it differs from all other species), that any race hostile to man's interests can be permanently benefited by his agency. The question, in short, resolves itself into one of time. It has already been intimated, that man is the only species that habitually destroys for other purposes than those of food. This leads me to a few remarks on the extinction of species. Without alluding, however, to the more direct agency of the human race, towards accomplishing the destruction of every terrene species which conduces not in some way to our en- joyment, we will merely consider the natural causes which suffice to extirpate all other races, but are inadequate to effect the extinction of the human species. We have already seen that brute animals, in a state of nature, are merely beings of locality, whose agency tends to perpetuate the surrounding system of which they are members. It tends to do so, but is insufficient to effect this permanently ; because, in the immen- sity of time important changes are brought about in every locality, by causes ever in operation, to which the faculties of the inferior animals are blind. They must, therefore, perish with their locality, unless distributed beyond the influence of the change ; for their adaptations unfit them to contend for ex- istence with the more legitimate habitants of diverse haunts, in proportion as they were suited to their former abode : and it * A friend informs me that he has repeatedly noticed, in Aberdeenshire, the pairing of a black crow with an ordinary individual of C. Cornix ; and he further assures me that, to judge from its most commonly sitting, the former was in every instance the female bird. (Are not the black in- dividuals noticed in Ireland, and assumed to be C. Corone, in reality varieties of C. Cornix ?) It may be added, that the circumstances occasioning the alleged union, stated by Temminck, betwixt the Motacilla lugubris and M. alba require much additional investigation. t Vide IX. p. 613. between Man and all otheY Animals. 83 must be necessary for creatures of instinct to be thus expressly organised in relation to their specific haunts, even to all the minutiae we perceive, in order to enable them to perform ef- ficiently their destined office ; which exquisite adaptation, however, cannot but of course disqualify them for maintaining their existence elsewhere. In man only we discover none of these partial adaptations, further than that he is intended to exist upon the ground; and the human race alone, in opposition to all other animals, takes cognisance of the progressive changes adverted to, and, from reflection, intentionally opposes obstacles to their course, or systematically endeavours to divert their energy. Man's agency, indeed, tends everywhere to alter, rather than to preserve, the indigenous features of a country ; those features which natural causes combine to produce : in short, he strives against the united efforts of all other agents, insomuch that, wherever he appears, with his faculties at all developed, the aspect of the surface becomes changed : forests yield to his persevering labours ; the marshes are drained, and converted into fertile lands ; the very climate, accordingly, changes under his influence, which every way inclines to ex- tirpate the indigenous products of the soil, or to reduce them, by domestication, to a condition subservient to the promotion of human interests. Does not, then, all this intimate that, even as a mundane being, man is no component of that reci- procal system to which all other species appertain ? a system which for countless epochs prevailed ere the human race was summoned into being. His anomalous interference, therefore (for this word most aptly expresses the bearings of human in- fluence upon that system), essentially differing from the uniform agency of all the rest, in not conducing to the general welfare, is thus shown to be in no way requisite to fill a gap in the vast system alluded to. All rather tends alike to indicate him a being of diverse, of higher destiny ; designed, in the course of time, with the aid of physical causes ever in operation, and the presumed cessation of the creative energy, to revolutionise the entire surface of our planet. I will presently recur to this subject as regards marine productions. It is sufficiently evident, that, as the human species is bound to no description of locality, but alike inhabits the mountain and the plain, and is, by self-contrivance, enabled to endure the fervid heats of tropical climes, equally with the withering blasts of a polar winter, it is consequently proof against the undermining effects of those surface changes which suffice to effect the extermi- nation of every other. * Its future removal, then, from this * There is no occasion, here, to follow out all the causes which combine |o bring about the extirpation of species"; but I will mention one which 8 1 Psychological Distinctions between Man and Animals, scene of existence, whenever that shall happen, will probably be brought about on another principle : how, it would be most appears not to have been duly considered by those who have written on the subject. We have every reason to believe that the original germ of an animal may be developed into either male or female ; and it is certain, that external circumstances exercise a very considerable influence in determining the sex of the future being. Now, the results of experiments instituted on sheep by the Agricultural Society of Severac fully warrant the conclusion, that, where species exist under circumstances favourable for their increase, a greater number of that sex is produced, which , in polygamous animals is most effectual for their multiplication ; whereas the contrary obtains, pro- bably, in proportion to the difficulty of obtaining a livelihood. The relative age and constitutional vigour of the parents is likewise an important ele- ment in this problem ; and, combined with the former, will enable us to calculate an average with tolerable precision. I have collected some very curious facts bearing upon this subject, some of which are extremely difficult of explanation. Mr. Knapp, in his Journal of a Naturalist, has the following, which is worthy of close attention : — " The most remarkable in- stance," he observes, of variation in the relative proportion of the sexes, *' that I remember of late, happened in 1825. How far it extended I do not know ; but, for many miles round us, we had in that year scarcely any female calves born. Dairies of forty or fifty cows produced not more than five or six j those of inferior numbers in the same proportion ; and the price of female calves for rearing was greatly augmented. In a wild state," he justly observes, "an event like this would have considerable influence upon the usual product of some future herd." (Note top. 138.) This occurred in Gloucestershire. The character of the preceding season is not stated ; but, most probably,it was one of scarcity to the parent animals. The following list exhibits the proportion of the sexes in the annual produce of generally six cows, of the Ayrshire breed (four being the same individuals throughout, the remainder their produce), kept in a park in this neighbour- hood. It commences with the year in which the present superintendent took charge of the stock; and there is no question but that, if the stock-books of other persons who have the care of cattle were to be duly looked over for a series of years, many similar and equally interesting facts would be brought to light : — In 1826, from 6 cows, were born 6 male calves, 0 females. 1827 - 6 . . 6 . - 0 1828 . 6 - . 6 . m 0 1829 . 5 . . 4 . m 1 1830 - 6 M . 3 . u 3 1831 - 5 . . 0 . . 5 1832 - 5 . - 0 . . 5 1833 - C * . 0 . . 6 1834 . 6 M . 0 . u 6 1835 . 6 . . 3 . ~ 3 1836 - 6 - - 2 - . 4 Thus it appears that, for the first four years, but one female calf was produced out of twenty-three births ; that in the succeeding year the pro- portions were equal ; that in the next four years, out of twenty-two births, there was not a single male; and that in the following year, again, the sexes were in like proportions. The present season, alone, has formed an excep- tion to this remarkable regularity, which I have in vain endeavoured to solve by making every enquiry concerning the male parents. There is some reason, also, to suspect that the same phenomenon will be found to obtain Occurrence of the Yew in Churchyards. 85 useless to enquire. There is no reason, however, hence to anticipate that supernatural means must necessarily be resorted to, as a malignant disease might suffice to level all ranks in the dust. It is enough for my present purpose, to indicate in this the diversity of the human from all other species. Some have argued the connexion of man with the reci- procal system to which the inferior animals pertain, because, forsooth, he sometimes is annoyed by parasites. Without dwelling upon this topic, I may be allowed to say that it remains to be shown that any are peculiar to the human species. The certain fact, that different races of mankind are infested by distinct species, rather points to the conclusion, that, as the bed cimex can subsist and thrive away from human habitations, so also may even those species which abide on the person.* (To be continued.) Art. V. On the Longevity of the Yeiv, as ascertained from actual Sections of its Trunk ; and on the Origin of its frequent Occur- rence in Churchyards. By J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S. ( Continued from p. 35.) Many reasons have been assigned for the frequent occur- rence of the yew in our churchyards: to me, it always seemed most natural and simple to believe that, being indisputably in- digenous, and, from its perennial verdure f, its longevity, and among wild birds. The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert remarks, incidentally, that he has found in the nests of whitethroats (Curruca cinerea) a great predominance of males, and the contrary in those of whinchats andstonechats; which latter I have also noticed myself; but cannot say that I have re- marked it in a sufficient number of instances, nor over a sufficient extent of ground, nor for a sufficiently protracted period, to be enabled to deduce any general or satisfactory conclusion : the fact can, in most instances, be only ascertained (without slaughtering a great number) by raising them to matu- rity in confinement. But the young stonechat may be readily distinguished even in the nest : the immature males having a large pure white spot above their wings, which in the females is pale brown. The subject is extremely worthy of further investigation, and it is needless to point out its important bearings in wild nature. * It is amusing to observe how gravely the loss of these parasites is commented on in Vol. IX. p. 612. as a necessary consequence of the ex- termination of human beings. Let us suppose they were to perish ; what then ? Have not myriads upon myriads of every class of beings become extinct, as species, without affecting at all the workings of the mighty system ? Why, then, should the dreaded loss of a few parasites, the sphere of whose influence cannot be supposed to extend beyond that of the species to which their adaptations link them ? f Its very name seems to be derived from the Celtic, iw, signifying verdure. 86 Origin of the frequent Occurrence the durability of its wood, at once an emblem and a specimen of immortality, it would be employed by our pagan ancestors, on their first arrival here, as the best substitute for the cypress, to deck the graves of the dead, and for other sacred purposes.* As it is the policy of innovators in religion to avoid unne- cessary interference with matters not essential, these, with many other customs of heathen origin, would be retained and engrafted on Christianity on its first introduction. It would indeed be surprising, if one so innocent and so congenial to their best feelings were not allowed, as a tribute to departed worth or friendship, under that new and purer system, which confirmed to them the cheering prospect of a reunion after death with those who had shared their pleasures and affections here. History and tradition concur in telling us that this was the case, and that the yew was also closely connected in the superstitions of our simple forefathers with ghosts and fairies. In a very ancient Welsh bard, we are told of two churches eminent for their prodigious yew trees : — « Bangor Eseor, a Bangeibyr Henllan Yssid er clodvan er clyd Ywyz ;" which Dr. Owen Pugh thus translates : — " The Minster of Esgor, and that of Henllan, of celebrity for sheltering yews." Henllan signifies an old grove ; thus proving that its church stood where druid worship had been performed. Can we, then, longer doubt the real origin of planting it in our church- yards ? And, if it be said that this, its usual, though not natural, situation rather proves the venerable trees we find there not to be older, at most, than the introduction of Chris- tianity, I reply, that our earliest Christian churches were generally erected on the site of a previous heathen temple, and that at least one motive for placing them there would be their proximity to trees so sacred, already venerable for size, and indispensable in their religious rites. That these rites were performed, and altars erected, in groves, from the highest antiquity, we know from the Pentateuch. The devotions and sacrifices of Baal among the Moabites, and the idolatrous rites of the Canaanites and other gentile tribes, were performed in groves and high places. The druids chose for their places of worship the tops of wooded hills, where, as they allowed no covered temples, they cleared out a circular space, and erected their circles of stone.f Many of the first Christian * I am told that in some parts of Hampshire it is still the custom to sponge the bodies of the dead with an infusion of yew leaves, under the idea that it retards or prevents putrefaction. f It worthy of remark, that many of the remote Welsh churches are on little eminences among the wooded hills. Mr. Rootsey of Bristol sug- of the Yew in Churchyards. 87 churches were built, and intertwined wTith green boughs, on the sites of druidical groves. When Augustine was sent by Gregory the Great to preach Christianity in Britain, he was particularly enjoined not to destroy the heathen temples, but only to remove the images, to wash the walls with holy water, to erect altars, &c, and so convert them into Christian churches. These were the designata loca Gentilium, in which our con- verted ancestors performed their first Christian worship. Llan, so general a name for towns and villages in Wales, is a cor- ruption of the British llwyn, a grove ; and, strictly, means an enclosure, rather than a church, the places so designated being, probably, the earliest inhabited spots, and also those where religious rites would be celebrated. Eglwys means a Christian church (ecclesia) ; and, probably, those were so called which were first erected after the introduction of Christianity, and not on the site of a heathen temple. wo But this is not the place to pursue this curious subject ; nor am I competent to discuss it. I am satisfied with having brought forward sufficient proofs, from the laws of nature examined upon scientific principles, of the great longevity of the yew ; and, as history and tradition give their concurrent testimony that it was held sacred by our remotest ancestors, I think we cannot avoid the conclusion, that many of the speci- mens which still survive must have been planted long before the first promulgation of Christianity.* Nay, some yews, still standing, are probably above 3000 years old. Who, without emotion, can look upon one of these primeval giants, the oldest of living forms; which, after braving the storms and accidents gested to me whether our words kirk and church might not originate in cerrig, a stone or circle of stones, the first churches having been placed within these circular stone enclosures. Hence also, perhaps, caery a camp, which word is also used in some parts of Wales for the wall round a churchyard. Dr. Stukeley believes that round churches are the most ancient in England ; though others, I know not why, do not agree with him. A circle was the most sacred symbol among the Eastern nations of antiquity ; and it would be interesting to know whether the raised platform within a circle of stones, which is sometimes found round our old yews, as in Darley and Llanfoist churchyards, is not a remnant of this super- stition, « j^fl* „.Z Aporf' * If the superannuated yew in Braburn churchyard, Kent, mentioned by Evelyn in his Sylva, as being then (in 1660) 58 ft. 11 in. in circum- ference ; or that at Crowhurst, in Surrey, which was then 30 ft. ; be still standing, it would be well if some competent person would fix their age by examination of actual sections: also that of the great Fortingal Yew, near Loch Tay, named by Pennant, and which is still standing, or was in 1833. It is also desirable that any fine old tree, of whatever kind, should be measured and placed on record, with the date and any other particulars, which would hereafter form valuable standards whereby to estimate their future increase, and establish a general average rule. 88 Origin of the frequent Occurrence of so many centuries ; after being the contemporary of suc- cessive dynasties and governments now swept away, and sur*ii viving various changes in the customs, nay even in the language and religion, of the country; still enjoys a green old age, and promises to remain, for centuries to come, the living, though unconscious, witness of other unforeseen events and changes, when we shall have joined our fathers beneath its shade? ^b Since writing the above, I have had an opportunity of seeing many venerable yews in Monmouthshire ; and have been in- formed that one or more such may be found in most of the retired country churchyards among the hills in that county and in Breconshire. Though I was not provided with the means of taking sections, the extraordinary dimensions and singular growth of two of these yews deserve to be recorded. The first {Jig. 12.) is in the churchyard of Mamhilad, a few miles north iudJioH to bisy ah (^ ft m a Jails* £ -"ho ad t tu-iJ sdt% ^\ m srfj jgniarmq Art. VI. Observations upon Valuta Lambfrii, xvith a Description of a gigantic Species of Terebrdtula from the Coralline Crag, By Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S. Prior to the publication of my remarks in the last Number of the Magazine of Natural Histoiy, upon the Voluta Lamberti, I communicated my intention to M. Deshayes, informing him at the same time of the opinion entertained by British con- chologists, as to his having erroneously placed that fossil on the list of existing species. Having, in the course of my former paper, mentioned the silence of M. Deshayes upon this subject, it is now only just for me to state that within the last few days a letter has reached me, dated 15th of the present month (January), in which it appears that illness and other causes prevented his replying to mine at an earlier period. He thus explains the grounds which led him to class the crag Voluta with those fossil species which have living analogues. " Vous me demandez, Monsieur, des renseignements sur le Voluta Lamberti de Mr. Sowerby. Vous savez mieux que moi ce que M. Sowerby dit de cette coquille dans son Mineral Conchology : il dit en avoir vu l'analogue vivant peche dans les mers du sud : il en decrit les couleurs ; et c'est a cette description que je me suis confie pour mentioner cette espece parmi les analogues vivants et fossiles. Plusieurs personnes sur le temoignage des quelles je pouvais compter m'ont dit avoir vu a Londres l'analogue vivant du Voluta Lamberti. Ce sont la les seuls renseignements que je pos- sede a ce sujet, et ils ne vous apprendront rien que vous ne sachiez mieux que moi. Quant aux fossiles, je puis vous * The greater part of this Paper was read at the meeting of the British Association at Bristol, where it excited very great interest. — Ed. Observations upon P'oluta Lamberti. 91 affirmer apr&s un tres-minutieux examen, que Panalogue tdentique du Voluta Lamberti se trouve aux environs d' An- gers, dans les fallons de la Touraine, et aux environs de Bor- deaux et de Dax, dans mon second etage tertiaire. ** Les indivklus que vous m'avez envoyes de cette espece sont plus beaux que ceux que je possedais dans ma collection. II est Evident que ces coquilles etaient deja fossiies lorsqu'elles ont £te reprises par la mer et roulees sur les cotes. Je vous ferai observer que les couleurs qu'elles ont acquises, ne ressem- blent point -a celles decrites par Sowerby ; et' il faudrait avoir toieii pen l'habitude de comparer des coquilles vivantes et fossiies pour croire que celles-ci sont vivantes paree qu'elles ont ete trouvees dans la mer.,, * Sowerby's observations respecting this fossil have evidently been quite misinterpreted by M. Deshayes, as will be seen on perusing the passage referred to, which occurs at p. 65. of vol. ii. tab. 129. " I retain this as a Volute, although the base is, perhaps, scarcely emarginate, and is more taper than usual. It is rather curious that about five specimens have been found in a recent state much resembling this, which are in the hands of different cognoscenti ; Mr. Hall is said to have two, Mr. Jennings one, of which I have seen drawings, some of which indicate an emarginate base ; the shape, in other re- spects, is so near that it might be considered the same ; the colour also corresponds ; the recent one is, however, finely marked- with zig zag or lightning-like stripes, of the colour of the warmest or darkest line of our figure, and is altogether to be admired, so that it has got the appellation of elegans. It is said to be a native of the Fejee Islands in the South Seas. I have seen a recent specimen approaching it with a ^vcfo gdlj agfilo oi mid i>o> no * " You ask for information respecting Voluta Lamberti. You are fully aware that Mr. Sowerby, in his Mineral Conchology, speaks of having seen the living analogue of this fossil, taken in the South Seas. He describes its colours, and it is upon this description that I have depended in placing this species among living analogues. Several persons, upon whose testi- mony I can rely, have told me that they have seen in London the living analogue of Voluta Lamberti. This is ali the information which I possess on this subject, and it will teach you nothing that you do not know better than myself. " With regard to the fossils, I can assure you, after a very minute ex- amination, that the identical analogue of Voluta Lamberti is found in the neighbourhood of Angers, in the marl pits of Touraine, and in the envi- rons of Bordeaux and of Dax, which belong to my second tertiary period. The individuals which you have sent me are finer than any specimens in my collection. It is evident that these shells were already fossil when taken up by the sea, and cast upon the beach. You will observe that the colours which they have acquired do not resemble those described by Sowerby j and one must be little in the hubit of comparing living and fossil shells, to believe that these are living because ihev have been found in the sea." h 2 92 Gigantic Species of Terebratula broad expansion of the outer lip, and emarginate base, with- out coloured markings." It appears, therefore, that the statement upon which M. Deshayes depended amounts to this : — that Mr. Sowerby had seen drawings of shells said to be in the possession of Mr. Hall and Mr. Jennings, resembling in some respects Vol uta Lamberti. The fact mentioned by Mr. Sowerby of the correspondence in colour between the crag volete and the drawings to which he refers is a suspicious circumstance, because the deep ochreous tint exhibited by the specimen figured in the Mineral Con- chology is a character more or less common to all the fossils found in the red crag, depending, in all probability, upon the presence of hydrated oxide of iron. It is, however, satisfac- tory to have learned thus much, that M. Deshayes has not personally examined any recent Voluta Lamberti, and it now only remains for him to name the individuals whom he ex- plicitly states to have really done so, and to learn of them the collection or collections in London in which these rarities are deposited. I anticipated some difficulties in instituting the present en- quiry, which I was led to enter upon from the consideration that a solution of the obscure points connected with the his- tory of this shell would be of importance to those who are interested in our own tertiary deposits; and, perhaps, not less so to those engaged in the study of recent conchology. Should I be fortunate enough to obtain any more facts relating to the subject, I shall not fail to take the earliest opportunity of making them public. The gigantic species of Terebratula represented at fig. 13. forms one of the numerous additions to fossil conchology which have resulted from the examination of those tertiary beds which are interposed between the crag and London clay in some parts of Suffolk. This shell cannot, it is true, be looked upon as an entirely new fossil, since Sowerby has, in the Mineral Conchology, figured and described several specimens, which are undoubtedly young individuals of the same species. The figures now given of this singular fossil are drawn by Mr. James de C. Sowerby, from specimens in my own collection ; and, although the most perfect, are by no means the largest which I have seen ; having occasionally met with fragments indicating a length of five or six inches, a size considerably exceeding that of any known fossil or recent Terebratula. Sowerby only remarks of this shell that it is a very abun- dant crag fossil, and that the valves are never found joined, and always much worn.* In the red crag, whence Sower- * Sowerby's Min. Con., vol. vi. p. 148, from tlw Coralline Crag, ,M Haiti w iiop\?Tij,\X7'0'dgijoid ^rtfrflri ^d ,f)9lisiv nssd v iji< v fjj^ OIjw 8llogl9q [[fat io jasih Art. I. Report of the Expedition for exploring Central Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope. (Published for the Subscribers only*) .BarftA rf,mo8 "io %{\&m molo yiiliiu aril ol bbe yldBiabiano') In the year 1834, some spirited individuals resident at the Cape, from a desire to promote the objects of science and like- wise to benefit the commercial interests of the colonists, raised a fund for the purpose of fitting out an expedition to explore a portion of Central Africa. With these ends in view, rather a numerous party equipped in a very efficient manner, were dispatched from the Cape, the arrangements and whole superintendence of the expedition being committed to the care of Dr. Andrew Smith ; and, among the instructions placed in his hands, particular directions were given for collecting all the materials in his power, relating to the natural history of the districts which he was about to explore. After an absence of about eighteen months, the party have returned ; and a report, containing a description of the route which they pursued, a list of the various specimens collected, and a general summary of their whole proceedings, is now laid before the subscribers. ;nijl ^^S^ lhe undertaking appears to have been very judiciously and ably conducted by Dr. Smith, who seems to have met with the most zealous cooperation on the part of the mis- sionaries ; he thus concludes his narrative — " The importance of the services which were rendered by the various missionaries we visited will, ere this, have been apparent ; yet, compara- tively speaking, but a small proportion of their real utility has been noticed, from the necessity of abstaining, on the present occasion, from particular details. To airof them I consider the Association to be deeply indebted for whatever degree of success has attended the exertions of the expedition ; and to the Rev. Mr. Moffat especially, for the friendly recep- tion and kind treatment which we experienced from Umsiligas.* To the general activity and good feeling of the majority of the members of the party itself, I am bound to ^attribute, in a great measure, the fortunate result of the enterprise ; and, should it ever be my good fortune to obtain leave to proceed on another journey of the kind, I should be delighted to have with me nearly all of the individuals of the late party, and more than delighted to have those gentlemen the fruits of whose talents f are this day conspicuous before you. obffiih " Having now given a general outline of the proceedings of the expedi- tion, I shall sum up concisely what appears to me to have been some of the principal results : — " 1st. It has put us in possession of much information respecting many tribes even hitherto unknown to us by name; and has enabled us also to extend very considerably our knowledge of those which had previously * An African chief. f 497 drawings. for exploring Central Africa. 99 been visited, by having brought us in immediate connexion either with them, or with persons who could furnish information regarding them. "2dly. It has enabled us to ascertain the geographical position of many places previously doubtful ; to lay down the sources and courses of various rivers which run to the eastward ; and otherwise obtain what will considerably add to the utility of our maps of South Africa. "3dly. It has enabled us to extend considerably our knowledge of natural history, not only by the discovery of many new and interesting forms in the animal kingdom, but also by additional information in regard to several previously known ; and has put us in possession of a splendid collection, which, if disposed of, will, in all probability, realise a sum more than equal to the expenses which have been incurred. "4thly. It has enabled us to ascertain that the Hottentot race is much more extended than has been hitherto believed ; and that parties or com- munities belonging to it inhabit the interior as far, at least, as the inland lake, which we were told is not less than three weeks' journey to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn. " 5thiy. It has made us aware of the existence of an infinity of misery in the interior with which we were previously unacquainted ; a circumstance which, in all probability, will lead, eventually, to the benefit of thousands, who, without some such opportunity of making known their sufferings, might have lived and died even without commiseration. *' 6thly. It has enabled us to establish a good understanding with Umsiligas, and insure his services and support in the farther attempts which may be made to extend our knowledge of South Africa, which, with- out his concurrence, could never be well effected from the Cape of Good " Lastly, 'it has furnished a proof that the plan upon which the Asso- ciation proceeded was calculated to accomplish the objects it had in view ; and has given reason to believe that a party, similarly equipped, when assisted by the knowledge we now possess, may, with proper regard to the seasons, penetrate far beyond the latitude of 23. 28. (our southern limit), and with a termination equally fortunate as that of the late under- taking, afJ;j ^ Jjg-Jjjjflg An appendix attached to the report is principally occupied with specific descriptions of the new animals brought home by Dr. Smith, accompanied by some general observations re- specting them, which latter we extract. "As some time must necessarily elapse before the objects of the natural history department collected by the expedition can be examined and described in England, it may be expected that some account of those esteemed new to science should at present be produced. Had there been proper books of reference for such an undertaking to be con- sulted here, a detail of the kind might have been furnished with some satisfaction ; but as that is not the case, what I now submit is offered with diffidence, and not without a belief that it will be discovered to abound in inaccuracies. Independent of which, it must of necessity be very limited, and will include only such quadrupeds and birds as are not dis- tinctly noticed in Griffith's Translation of the Animal Kingdom, or Latham's General History of Birds. As neither of those works contains the many species which have lately been discovered, and are characterised in more recent publications, it will only be necessary to reject the name which I have given, if the subject of it have been already described. " During the journey, we traversed or visited three distinct zoological provinces, each supplying certain animal forms, which, if not restricted to 100 Smith's Report of the Expedition itself, certainly occurred in that relative proportion which warranted its being regarded as their favourite, if not their prescribed, resort. " The first district includes within its limits, Africa south of the Ky Gariep ; the second, the country between the latter and Kurrichaine ; and the third, the tract between Kurrichaine and the Tropic of Capricorn. Each of those provinces, again, would admit of being subdivided into smaller ones, which, individually, would establish paramount claims to the possession of certain forms, and at the same time furnish members of others, whose head quarters would be readily traced to other localities. Thus, most of the species we met with appeared to have each a natural or chosen domicile, where an evident congregation of its members existed ; and, by discovering some of these, I was obliged to discard opinions which had been formed during our early movements, as to the paucity of mem- bers in certain species, and their very limited range. The country in the vicinity of the Ky Gariep supplied us with a few specimens of several species, certain of which must at least have been wanderers, as their more common habitats were eventually discovered either immediately beyond Latakoo, or between Kurrichaine and the Tropic. But of three of the species obtained near that river, no additional specimens were afterwards discovered : it may therefore be expected, that of these the partridge will be found in abundance on the grassy plains which skirt the range of moun- tains that extends towards the remote sources of the Ky Gariep ; the thrush, in numbers, either on the banks of the various streamlets to the eastward, or in the district interior to Delagoa Bay; and the Falco chiquera may also have its African metropolis in the same direction. " Scarcely had we passed the northern limit of the first district, when objects foreign to it presented themselves to our notice ; and by the time we reached the latitude of Latakoo, which may be regarded as the centre or head quarters of the second province, we found many novelties to engage attention, at the same time that we were kept in remembrance of the first district, by the occasional appearance of species common even in the vicinity of Cape Town. " In advancing towards the third province we lost several species, par- ticularly of birds, common near Latakoo ; and we occasionally met with new ones, but the individuals were in number so limited, that they might be regarded as emigrants, rather than fixed inhabitants of the district. On reaching the vicinity of the third province, objects hitherto unseen were immediately procured ; and before we had penetrated it to any extent, the number of those was considerably increased, and some species known to inhabit Northern Africa were obtained, such as Merops Minulus, Psittacus Meyerii, Anser gambensis, &c. fiiqo 9fii '* Certain species of quadrupeds and birds were found common to the three districts; namely, Cercocebus pygerythraeus, Mephitis Zorilla, Cy- nictis Ogilbyii, Canis mesomelas, Hyaena crocuta, Leo Malaniceps, Bathy- ergus hottentotus, Elephas africanus, Gazella euchore, Boselaphus Oreas, Strepsiceros Koodoo, Vultur fulvus, Neophron aegyptiacus, Helotarsus typicus, Elanus melanopterus, Accipiter musicus, Accipiter Gabar, Milvus parasiticus, Nilaus (Lanius capensis Shdw), Bucorvus (Corvus albicollis), Picus biarmicus, Columba capensis, &c. " Others to the second and third, such as Macroscelides brachyrynchus, Ichneumon ratlamuchi, Rhinoceros simus, Rhinoceros Keitloa, Equus Burchellii, Camelopardalis australis Sw.y Aigoceras equina, Antilope melampus, Cephalopus Burchellii, Vultur occipitalis, Neophron caruncu- latus, Cratopus bicolor (Loxia maculosa JSurck), Estrelda Granatina, Pterocles variegata, Pterocles semitorquata, &c. "And to the third only, Galago Moholi, Macroscelides Intufi, Sciurus Cipapi, Aigoceras ellipsiprymnus, Prionops Talacoma, Cratopus Jardine, Euplectes Taha, Estrelda Lipiniani, Estrelda bengala, Polystictice, for exploring Central Africa. 101 Quopopa, Perdix sephaena, Perdix Coqui, Perdix Swainsonii, Perdix Lechoha, &c. " In the second district some few species were obtained which did not present themselves to our observation either in the first or third ; but the members of nearly all of those were so limited that we may, without hesi- tation, conclude they were proper to provinces which were not reached by the expedition. orntrLsq dnk " The range of species, generally speaking, appeared to vary considerably as to extent; and in no case was it possible to discover any cause or causes, depending upon external circumstances, which could enable us to account, in a satisfactory manner, for such a diversity. There is, doubt- less, a something besides either food or temperature which influences, nay, regulates, the distribution of animal forms ; but what that may be, will appear more and more evident only as we get divested of the opinion that we already know sufficient of the scheme of the Creator to enable us to explain the manifold difficulties which it offers to our enquiry, by the assumed aid of certain external agencies, which, in all probability, will eventually be found to have not even the most remote share in the occur- rences. " When countries shall have been carefully traversed, and the animal productions inhabiting them exclusively, or in common with other coun- tries, minutely examined, both as relates to their physical characters and their habits, then the naturalist may be able to indicate principles which the great book of nature, and not simply the books of men, will maintain and extend. If persons could spring into existence, and enter upon the course which one of the first observers of the day is following, could study as he is studying, and enquire as he is enquiring, then might Mr. Swainson yet aspire to see the day when mind and matter would alike proclaim the accuracy of his views, and when African travellers, at least, would declare they found little to gather which was not in corroboration of the contents of his interesting volumes. " The facts which we have collected are in direct support of the opinions maintained by Mr. Swainson ; and the observations we have had occasion to make will be of interest only, provided naturalists feel satisfied to pro- ceed, by endeavouring to discover what are not, instead of what are, the the ways, means, and ends of Omnipotence, in the regulation of man and the animal world." *d 'zi3e\do ^onbroiq htifii odl lo viinbiv s In deviating from a plain narration of facts to touch upon the ground of speculative enquiry, and in doing homage to the opinions advanced by a talented writer of the present day, Dr. Smith appears to us not to have evolved his own ideas with that clearness and precision which, from the general tenor of his observations, we might have expected. If per- sons could spring into existence, and enter at once upon the course which Mr. Swainson is pursuing, would it hasten, in the smallest degree, the time when mind and matter shall de- clare the accuracy of his views, unless those views be the result of sound philosophical induction, originating in the cautious observance of facts, and in the unbiassed investiga- tion of zoological phenomena ? If we may venture to throw out a hint to Dr. Smith, judging from the decided sentiments * We do not quite see the author's meaning here, after what he has re- marked in the preceding sentence. — Ed. 102 Smith's Report of the Expedition which he has expressed, we would suggest to him the expe- diency of making public the facts which he has collected, apart from any theoretical indications which they may appear to present. If as an African traveller he has really gathered nothing, save what is in corroboration of the conclusions ar- rived at by Mr. Swainson, we should say, — Record your ob- servations, but leave their theoretical application to others. Not that we mean to convey the slightest expression of hostile feeling towards these views of which Dr. Smith avows himself so staunch an advocate ; but, if it be desirable that the observations made during the progress of the present expedition should be received with perfect confidence by all parties, we think it would be the safest course to avoid giving the impression, that they are about to be put forward with some ulterior object, rather than with a view of simply ex- tending our present positive information with respect to the innumerable forms of animated existence, their varied attri- butes, and their adaptation to their respective localities. The supposed new forms described in the appendix to the report, consist of about sixty birds, and thirteen quadrupeds*, among which is a new species of rhinoceros, of which the following are given as the characters. " Rhinoceros Keitloa. — Colour, a rusty greenish yellow, clouded with pale olive brown; horns of equal length, the anterior one curved and rounded, the posterior straight, and laterally compressed ; size of the Rhinoceros africanus. Inhabits the country north and south of Kurri- chaine." '3 ^ • The following is a general statement of the number of spe- cimens collected relating to natural history : — " 180 skins of new or rare quadrupeds; 3379 skins of new or rare birds; 3 barrels containing snakes, lizards, &c. ; J box containing insects ; 1 box containing skeletons, &c. ; 3 crocodiles ; 2 skeletons of crocodiles ; 23 tortoises, new or rare ; 799 geological specimens ; 1 package of dried plants ; 457 drawings." " Reptiles, Lizards, Tortoises, and Insects. — From what has already been stated, it will have been understood that the classification and de- scription of the objects belonging to the above divisions of the animal kingdom cannot here be attempted with advantage ; the remarks, there- fore, which are offered in regard to them must deal in generalities. Generic forms, unknown in the colony, and even yet in the records of science, are contained in the collections ; and the species belonging to genera already indicated are, generally speaking, different from those which occur to the southward of the Orange River. Among the snakes obtained, two of the most beautiful belong to the genera Bucephalus and Chrysopelea. The first measured nearly 6 ft. in length, and is of an uniform, fine grass-green colour: it forms the sixth species of this genus, which, as far as I know, is peculiar to South Africa. The second is smaller in size, but also marked by lively colours, and is the second species of the genus which I have found in this country. Soon after passing Kurrichaine, we came in communication with the haunts of the larger for exploring Central Africa. 103 forms of this class, and procured specimens of a species of Python, which I had formerly obtained near Port Natal. The poisonous snakes have been found to bear nearly the same proportion to innocuous ones which they do in the colony. " Crocodiles, of moderate size, were found inhabiting the principal rivers beyond Kurrichaine in considerable numbers, and are much dreaded by the natives, who, like their cattle, dogs, &c, often suffer from their voracity. One which we shot had just swallowed a Rooye-bok (Antelope Melampus), which had been caught in the act of drinking, and it was ex- tracted entire from its stomach. Besides crocodiles, we found in the same river a new species of box tortoise, belonging to the genus Sterno- therus, and which has been provisionally designated Sternotherus africa- nus. The shell of this species sometimes measures 2 ft. in length. But few specimens were procured ; a circumstance not arising out of the scarcity of individuals, but from the difficulty of catching them, the deepest pools being their exclusive abodes. " As regards the collection of insects, it is (and that from necessity) but small ; yet, nevertheless, it will furnish some interesting species. The interior does not appear to present that rich field for the entomologist which is done by the districts nearer the coast. It is true a portion of the most favourable season for the collection of insects passed when we were in situations where but few trees or little underwood existed, and where, at certain seasons, the country is densely covered with grass. " Botany. — From there having been no person attached to the party for the specific purpose of collecting and drying plants, little of interest has been obtained in this department. That beauty and variety which characterise the productions of the vegetable kingdom within the colony were not observed at any great distance beyond the Orange River ; and though numerous forms of the smaller and less showy plants in all proba- bility exist in the different districts we visited, yet the means and the time for detecting them were wanting. Few trees were observed, and the Acacia Giraffae had but few rivals, as far as regarded size. Shrubs, from 1 ft. to 6 ft. in height, prevail in abundance, from Vaal River to some distance north of Latakoo, and to a great distance north-west and west of it; also upon the granite and limestone formations, over which we principally travelled, beyond Kurrichaine. Indeed, in the latter district, they, asso- ciated with dwarf trees, formed almost a continuous coating to the surface of the country, which coating became denser and denser as the Tropic was approached. The few seeds which were collected have, by direction of the committee, been planted in the botanical garden of Baron Von Ludwig ; and the dried specimens of plants have, by a like order, been reserved to form a portion of the general collection destined for Europe. " Mineralogy and Geology. — An extensive collection of geological specimens has been formed, which will enable the Association to dispose of four series, and, at the same time, reserve one, the finest and most complete, for the Association. The specimens possessed are calculated to furnish a correct knowledge of the prevailing geological groups which occur between Graaff-Reinet and the Tropic, and show what a great share the trap and granitic series possess in the structure of South Africa. No organic remains were detected, though extensive limestone formations, with a distinct stratification, and abounding in caverns, were examined in three different positions, the last in about latitude 25°. The notes pos- sessed in relation to those points will admit of ample illustration when the subject can be treated in detail." Naturalists in this country will eagerly anticipate the arrival of so extensive a series of zoological specimens, and we ob~ 104? Museum of Natural History at Paris. serve, that it is intended to retain for a time the most valuable part of the collection, for exhibition in Europe, with a view of raising funds for enabling the Association to pursue its original object, by sending out other expeditions. Look- ing at the thing as a matter of pecuniary advantage to the Association, we would strongly urge the committee to reconsider the policy of the course which they propose to adopt. Unless some particularly advantageous plan can be devised, with reference to the manner in which the collection is to be shown ; we doubt whether the sum raised by its ex- hibition in England would amount to one tenth of the ex- penses which must unavoidably be incurred in making the necessary arrangements. [At a general meeting of the members of the Association, held March 19. 1836, immediately after the return of the expedition, it was resolved, unanimously, — That the only adequate thanks which can be rendered to Dr. Smith are, that he be requested to undertake the next expedition.] MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. Art. I. Short Communications* [A correspondent has put into our hands the following translation of a passage which has just appeared in the second volume of Raspail's work upon vegetable physiology (p. 624.). As the evidence laid before the parliamentary committee rela- tive to the British Museum, has been published in the course of the past month, in which allusions are repeatedly made to the public Continental museums, the opinion entertained by a French naturalist, with respect to the one at Paris, is certainly deserving attention. — EdJ] Museum of Natural History at Paris. — Here reform should penetrate with its pitiless hammer ; for here long established customs have become abuses scarcely sus- ceptible of correction by other means. The Museum of Natural History is a kind of oligarchical republic, inde- pendent of the power which protects and supports without controlling it. This republic is governed by irremovable professors ; and the rank is in some measure hereditary, since these professors constitute a self-electing body. Their number is limited to ten, and they have the power of pro- posing their own sons and sons-in-law. It is thus easy to imagine that the museum may one day be ruled by a single family of professors. This would undoubtedly be the result if one professor should have only sons, and the rest daughters : Museum of Natural History at Paris. 105 at each vacancy two parents would then be accommodated.* The professors have the final nomination of the officers (em- ployes) of the establishment, and the regulation of their salaries; an effectual guarantee against the grievous evil of sinecures, and the scandal of enormous emoluments, amongst these officers ; and yet many of these latter have rendered greater service to science than certain of the professors. We shall one day have no reason to thank that institution, which imposed on Cuvier the burthen of sinecures to the amount of 60,000 fr., and condemned Laurillard, his preparator, to a sti- pend of 2000 fr. The state supported Cuvier; the voice of Cuvier in the conclave fixed the remuneration of Laurillard. The building is occupied by collections from the three kingdoms of natural history, and the mansions of the profes- sors. It is divided into the galleries of zoology, anatomy, and mineralogy ; a menagerie, a botanic garden, and enclosures appropriated to bota?iical and, as they say, agricultural demon- strations ; green-houses and orangeries, where exotics are cultivated at great expense ; and, lastly, a library. The allowance for this establishment is 360,000 fr. (about 14,000/.) per annum. Such an establishment, supported by such an allowance, should doubtless be a nursery, so to speak, of discoveries and their applications ; but for more than six years the legislature has had ample opportunity of learning that it can but serve as the grave of all the discoveries for- warded to it from the four quarters of the globe. There is no catalogue to define the value of this national property, and guide the researches of the student. The bales are opened at the pleasure of the professors, who select from them such objects as come under their department^ and take charge of forwarding them to their destination, without taking the precaution of cataloguing them, and thereby covering their own responsibility and that of their officers. A professor has the right of carrying home, and even of lending, a speci- men of the greatest importance, and of returning it to the collection at his convenience. He is not at all bound to place the collection under his care within the reach of students ; he may even, under pretences of which he alone is judge, refuse them the use of it altogether. He is granting them a par- ticular favour in opening the drawers of the cases to them, and he grants it only, as may be imagined, to those who will thank him for it. Most of the collections are unclassed, and, so far, useless to the student ; others are so incomplete, that it * At this very time one father has united the votes for his son and two sons-in-law : his grandchildren are not yet adult ; but their place is marked in the museum. Vol. I. — No. 2. n. s. i 106 Museum of Natural History at Paris. has been asked often, and anxiously, how a mere inferior officer (employe), economising on his slender salary, con- trived to make a collection which at his death sold for 60,000 fr., whilst the corresponding collection in the museum, with the advantage of its superior reputation, is not valued at 10,000 fr. Still the state is so generous as to allow this establishment the sums required; and we have heard, in the Chamber, the amount and the unhappy expenditure of these grants made with a readiness deserving a better use. It has been there noticed that the new gallery of mineralogy had been built in such a manner, that half the specimens will be hidden from public view. We have before remarked in what spirit the plan of the green-houses was drawn. Now, the tenth of this sum would have been enough to enrich and class each collection in the most ample manner. The garden has a professor of agriculture, who neither does nor can profess agriculture ; and a division of agricul- ture, which could not serve for demonstrations ; for I doubt if a plough or a drill could turn at the end of a furrow without breaking the trelliswork. More especially it has a school of botany, and green-houses where the tyranny of the professors grudges more and more to independent study the small advantages which custom and the indefatigable com- plaisance of the inferior officers had hitherto secured to authors. Hitherto, the gate of the green-houses had been open to us, as well as that of the enclosures : this has all been changed this year, at the will of a man whom, we grant, our work had not flattered. Presenting ourselves, as usual, at a time when a plant was in flower which it was needful in the course of our work to analyse, an attendant ran to request our immediate departure, as we were not in possession of a ticket of admission, such as had been voted necessary by the professors, at the request of the official owner of the green- houses. Some days after, three of these tickets were procured for us, signed by the professor himself, with a request that we would not visit the beds unaccompanied by a gardener. We cast back these impertinences to the administration, and had recourse to other complaisance than that which the state fancies it is paying in the interests of students. Now, it has been decided that a mere gardener has the right of gathering whoJe bouquets in these green-houses : the pro- fessor covers his chimney-piece with them. It has been de- cided, also, that a student has the right to examine a flower on the spot, and even to carry home a certain number of specimens for his private study ; so that the condition annexed to this permission was a gratuitous insult, and a mode of shut- Music of Snails. 107 ting the door to us whilst pretending to open it. The author of it had rightly counted upon our self-respect. Each professor, in his own particular department, enjoys the same privileges as the professor of the orangeries. When Cuvier was at work upon ichthyology, it was forbidden to de- liver a bottle of fishes to any one whatever : Cuvier "mas at work upon the fishes, and at the garden of plants Cuviers are become rare. Note that appeal would be useless : these gentlemen are responsible only to their conscience; a tribunal which, for our parts, we know not the means of reaching. The herbarium, that library of dried specimens of native and exotic plants, was not long ago in rich disorder: the adepts alone had the key of these buried treasures. The professors have the right of lending, as seems good to them, the fasciculi, to be consulted on the spot and at home. Stu- dents not thus protected must carry their desk into the com- mon hall, and work under these gentlemen's inspection. In short, the collections of the museum belong, in all strictness, to the professors : the public has nothing of its own but the right of walking there; students have no right to any thing but certain favours, which they must repay by an ample gratitude. The immediate consequence is, that science, up to this time, has not received a hundredth part of the advantages it had a right to expect from an institution so well furnished, and so liberally endowed. There the plants are warmed in winter, watered and aired in summer, and thrown away when they have degenerated : but, as to experimental physiology and theoretical or practical agriculture, private individuals, la- bourers, and provincial gardeners are allowed to devote themselves to the study of these at their own expense. " Music of Snails" — At p. 46. of your last Number, you remark upon a short communication under the above title, which appears to have been sent by a lady to the editor of the Naturalist ; and, as you seem to think the subject deserv- ing of some consideration, I have ventured to send you a few observations upon it. Three or four years ago, whilst sitting in my room reading late at night, my attention was attracted, for several nights in succession, to a sort of low musical note, which seemed to proceed from one of the windows. It oc- curred at short intervals, and was sometimes silent for a quarter or half an hour, and then returned again. I thought, at first, it proceeded from something in the room, or arose from some accidental vibration of one of the strings of a pianoforte which stood near the window ; but, being satisfied at length that it proceeded from the window itself, I drewT up i 2 108 Migration of Swifts. the blind, and discovered one of the common large garden snails crawling upon one of the panes. Immediately upon my drawing up the blind, and the light of the candle being strongly thrown upon the window, the sound ceased, and the snail partly withdrew itself under its shell; nor were its motions resumed so long as the light continued to be thrown upon the window. Being now satisfied, however, that the sound was caused by the motions of the snail on the pane of glass, I carefully noticed the exact position of the animal ; and, putting the candle in such a situation that no light should be thrown upon the window, I returned to it, and sat down close to the place where the snail was. In a few minutes the sound returned, and I had now no farther doubt of its being caused by the snail; for, bringing the candle back again so as just to throw light enough upon the window to enable me to perceive his motions, I observed that it was now moving on again across the pane, and the sound evidently accompanied it. Upon stopping its motion again as before, the sound ceased ; but always returned when it moved on. I suspected at the time, with the correspondent of the Natu- ralist, that the sound proceeded from the snail itself, as I was not able to ascertain whether the shell actually was in any part in contact with the glass; but I concluded that this must be the case, and that the sound was merely caused by the slow scraping of the shell on the moistened surface of the glass, producing a phenomenon somewhat similar to that which children amuse themselves in producing by passing a wet finger over the edge of a glass containing water. As far as I recollect, it was always in wet weather when the pheno- menon occurred j and when the whole surface of the glass would be overspread with moisture. The above phenomenon has been one of frequent occurrence since the time I first noticed it; and, if it be traceable to the same cause as in the other instance to which I have alluded, perhaps the body of the animal might cause a sufficient vibration in the glass to produce the sound, even if the shell were not in contact with it. If you think the above observations calculated to throw any light upon the subject, they are much at your service. — T. Salwey. Vicarage Oswestry, Jan. 5. 1 837. Migration of Swifts. — I beg to offer, for insertion in your Magazine, a few remarks relative to the autumnal migration, &c, of the swifts (Cypselus murarius Temm.), in the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, in this vicinity. The excessively hot weather we experienced during the summer of 1834, and, more particularly, about the time the swifts usually leave this country, might naturally have been Migration of Swifts. 109 expected to have had some influence in retarding their migra- tion. That this was not the case was very evident; for, although the month of August came in very hot, yet by the 9th they, apparently, had all taken their departure ; and for several succeeding days I did not observe a single individual of this species ; consequently, I was rather surprised on see- ing a pair of these birds, on the morning of the 17th, winging their rapid flight along the eaves of a house, where a colony of those birds had taken up their residence, for the purpose of nidification, during several seasons. I found, from observa- tion, this pair of birds continued to frequent this locality for a few days, when they disappeared. Their detention in this country, I judged at the time, was owing to their having a brood of young ones, which were unable to follow their con- geners in the early part of the month. With this conjecture I was obliged to rest satisfied, as I could not conveniently ascertain the fact at the time. After an interval of a week, a solitary individual made its appearance on the 28th, about noon, the thermometer at the time standing at 60°. After coursing round the same situation a few times, it disappeared ; and none were seen afterwards. Although the summer of 1835 exceeded in heat that of the preceding, yet, apparently, it had no visible effect whatever upon the migratory movements of the swifts. Up to August 3., there appeared to be a daily increase to their numbers, as they assembled, towards the evenings, in joyous conclaves, high over the town. The severe drought experienced at that time compelled the great majority of our Hirundines to seek for food along the meadows adjoining the river; consequently, but few were to be seen during the middle of the day. From the 3d to the 18th, each assemblage gradually decreased in numbers, when 1 only saw a few pairs, which, in a few days, were reduced to a single pair; and they continued to resort to their nesting-place throughout the month ; and, as they still lingered in its vicinity, I was induced, on September 3., to examine the situation ; when, to my utter astonishment, I found a nest containing a pair of squabs, probably only a week old. The parent birds were unremitting in their exertions, throughout the remainder of the month, in bring- ing food for their progeny ; apparently more so than at the usual period of nidification, by their constant and repeated visits during the middle of the day, which was evidently the fact ; for, when I examined the nest again on October 1., I found the pair of young birds very fat, and ready to wing their flight to distant climes, which, I suspect, took place on the 4th, that being the last day that I observed their parents 110 Mermaids. visiting them ; for on the following day I ascertained the young birds had taken their departure from the nest. The coolness of the past season, as compared with the two preceding, apparently, had more effect (if the weather has any influence) upon the migration of the swifts; for, up to August 19., there did not appear to be any very great dimi- nution of their numbers, being ten days or a fortnight later than the two former years before they began to disappear. The following day (20th), being very wet, evidently hastened their departure; for on the 22d only a few pairs were to be seen; and on the 27th I saw only a solitary pair, being the last that came under my notice for this season. The procrastinated period of nidification of the pair of swifts in the year 1835 naturally calls forth some few re- marks on such an unusual occurrence. Probably the delay arose in consequence of their nest, with several others con- taining eggs, being unavoidably destroyed about June I., owing to some necessary repairs at the place they unfor- tunately had selected for nidification. Several pairs of the old birds, after this disaster, still pertinaciously adhered to the same situation ; and I have no doubt the majority suc- ceeded in rearing their broods in sufficient time to take their departure with the main body, at which time the pair pre- viously noted could scarcely have commenced the task of incubation ; for it will be observed that on September 3. their young were, apparently, only a week old, which would give rather an unusual time for so small a bird, a period of three weeks for incubation, from the time their companions com- menced leaving this district. And we find so great was the instinctive propensity of these poor birds to increase their species, that they actually deferred their usual period of mi- gration, and remained nearly seven weeks in this country after all their associates had departed. — J. D. Salmon. Thetford, Dec. 3. 1836. Two Mermaids caught in the river Gabon, Africa. {Ex- tracted from Mr. HerajmtKs Railway Magazine.) — It ap- pears that this is not the first fish of the kind taken in the river Gabon. The natives had informed Captain Herapath of such things in a former voyage; and his treating the in- formation lightly was their reason now of sending for him to see it. He has not spoken of the tail; but, from what I learned in conversation with him, it appears that the fan of the tail is one undivided fin; and the plane of it, when the fish is swimming, horizontal, not vertical, like that of other fish. "Gabon, August 16. 1835, p.m. I received intelligence that a native residing at Sam's Town had taken a singularly Predictions of the Weather. Ill shaped fish, which, from the description given, I imagined to be a mermaid. On reaching the hut, I found two, both females : the largest was cut up ; the natives in the act of preparing it for a meal. Of the other, the following is a brief description : — Length, about 5 ft. ; breadth across the shoulders, about 14 in. ; the head something like that of a porpoise, and without hair, united with the body by a short neck. From the shoulders downwards the shape was exactly the same as represented in the engravings of the mermaid, with the exception of the arms. Instead of hands, they ter- minate the same as a turtle's fin, and have no joints except at the shoulders. The breasts were perfectly feminine, and the arms folded across as if to protect them. The skin was thick, of a dun colour, and the surface of it quite smooth. " The natives inform me that this animal, when seen, always appears erect, with the head and shoulders above water, and the arms in the same position as when I saw them.* — Brig Tom Cod, A. N. Herapath, Commander" Mr. Murphy's Predictions of the Weather. — Having, in the report of the proceedings of the Meteorological Society for December, 1836, stated Mr. Murphy's anticipated state of the weather for the present month (January, 1837), which will appear to most, or all, of your readers to have been a com- plete failure, and thereby calculated to reflect discredit on meteorologists, I think it but justice to Mr. Murphy to state that he has sent another paper to the Meteorological Society, prior to the last meeting on the 9th inst., explaining the error into which he had fallen with regard to the dates not coin- ciding with the meteorological facts. He accounts for his error in anticipating the first interval of frost to have set in about fifteen days, or half a lunar circle, sooner than he had expected ; or that the frost commenced at the full moon, or on the night of December 23., instead of the period of new moon, or the night of January 5. The greatest cold, there- fore, occurred in the night of the 1st January f (the second quadrature of the moon being only the day preceding, viz. Dec. 31.), immediately preceding the thaw, which com- menced January 2. Whereas, if these predictions had been made to correspond with the facts so accurately as they have done, dates and all, then all would have been ready to have pronounced Mr. Murphy's a lucky hit. But, seeing that he is out in dates only, and not in facts, I take it for granted that * This animal is evidently the Manatus senegalensis Desm.t which was well described by Adanson under the name of Lamantin. — Ed. f The minimum cold for the year 1836 occurred in the night of Jan, 1. j a remarkable coincidence. 112 Literary Notice. meteorologists ought to take courage from this error in calcu- lation, and rather encourage than censure the attempt made to bring meteorology within demonstrable limits. Mr. Murphy still feels a confidence that the second period of frost indicated by him (p. 56.) will still be borne out; viz. Jan. 22. and following days. The science of meteorology is at present but in its infancy, compared with astronomy, chemistry, &c. ; and, therefore, it becomes imperative on observers to be very minute in regis- tering facts in connexion with lunar influence, in order that the lunar action on the weather may be fully developed, not through the quadratures of a single lunation only, but through every lunar period during the year. It will then be seen whether periods of heat and cold, drought or humidity, con- stantly refer to the periods of new or full moon, or the quadratures, or whether their changes are not referable to some other agency. I ought, in conclusion, to observe that Mr. Murphy still believes that the calculation he made for this hemisphere will be borne out, both as to dates and circumstances, in the Western hemisphere ; from which he wishes to demonstrate that "lunar action is an active agency in the production of atmo- spheric cold equally as of heat." Time alone can put us in possession of the fulfilment of these as well as other pro- phecies.— W. H. White. London, Jan. 16. 1837. [We do not apprehend, with Mr. White, that any great sensation will be excited among meteorologists in consequence of Mr. Patrick Murphy's " unlucky hit." If it be the wish of the present members that the Meteorological Society should have any pretension to the character of a scientific body, they will have nothing to do with such foolish twaddle as (judging from the above letter) Mr. Murphy's " anticipations of the weather twelve months in advance " appear to consist of. — Ed.-] Art. II. Literary Notice. The second and concluding volume of H. C. New Botanist's Guide, containing Scotland and the adjacent Isles, with a copious Supplement to England and Wales, will be published in March. THE MAGAZINE OF NATURAL, HISTORY, MARCH, 1837. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. Art. I. On the Birds of Devonshire. By Edward Moore, M.D., F.L.S., Secretary of the Plymouth Institution. Having observed that a work on British birds is shortly to be published by Mr. Yarrell, I beg the favour of a portion of your pages, in order to give a list of the birds of Devon- shire. In the year 1830, I published a paper on the subject in the Transactions of the Plymouth Institution ; but since that period I have been able greatly to enlarge that catalogue; and am therefore desirous of thus offering the information I have obtained regarding several very rare specimens. I shall, however, confine myself to as brief a notice as possible; and, should any of your correspondents require farther ob- servations on particular species, I shall be ready to accede to their wishes on a future occasion. The subject of ornitho- logy has long been pursued here ; and, besides my own col- lection, I have access to those of Lord Boringdon, at Saltram; of Sir G. Magrath, Plymouth; of Dr. Isbell ; of C. Tripe, Esq. ; of Mr. Drew, collector, of Stonehouse ; and Pincombe and Bolitho, collectors, at Devonport. The list of British birds lately published by Mr. Eyton being an approximation to the arrangement of Cuvier, I shall take that for my guide in making the following observations ; and, in order not to occupy too much space at once, I propose to divide my communication into sections corresponding to the different orders. Order I. ACCl'PITRES. Division i. Diurnce. Gen. Fa'lco. — Subgen. 1. Fdlco. 1. Falco peregrinus, Peregrine falcon. This bird, termed the cliff hawk in Cornwall, is frequent on our coasts, where it breeds, and Vol. I. — No. 3. n. s. k 114? Birds of Devonsh ire, frequently pounces on the young gulls. Specimens are found in every collection. 2. Falco Subbuteo, Hobby. Visits us in summer ; breeds in Warleigh woods, whence a specimen was sent me by the Rev. Walter Radcliffe. 3. Falco rufipes, Red-legged falcon. A specimen of the male is in the possession of Pincombe, Chapel Street, Devonport, who obtained it fresh from a sailor. It might have been caught in the Channel ; but I am not quite certain of its being a Devon bird. 4. Falco iE'salon, Merlin. Found here in winter. Not numerous. 5. Falco Tinnunculus, Kestrel. Frequent. Breeds on our coasts. Subgen. 2. Hierofdlco. 1. Hierofalco Gyrfalco,the Gyrfalcon. Mentioned as a Devon bird in Polwhele's History of Devonshire, which is confirmed by the capture of a beautiful specimen on the banks of the Lynher, a branch of the Tamar, February 7. 1834. It had been wounded in the wing, and was kept alive for some days by Pincombe, in whose possession the bird now is. The whole of the plumage is white, barred with brown on the back ; wings and tail, head and neck, and sides of the body, with brown streaks ; breast, belly, and under tail coverts, white ; thighs white ; feathers ex- tending below the knee ; cere bluish ; bill pale blue, become white by drying; legs blue; iris hazel; tips of the wings brownish black, extending about half the length of the tail. Length about 1 ft. 9 in. Gen. A'quila. — Subgen. A'quila. 1. A'quila Chrysaetos, Golden eagle. Said to have been occasionally seen on Dartmoor ; and Mr. Gosling informs me that formerly a nest was known on Dewerstone Rock, near Plymouth. Subgen. 2. Halicestus. 1. Haliaevtus Pygargus, Sea eagle, or Cinereous eagle. A specimen caught near the Eddystone was kept alive some years by the late Addis Archer, Esq., at Leigham, near Plymouth. In the sum- mer of 1832, one was frequently seen by the gentlemen of the hunt, hovering over Dartmoor; and, in October of that year, a fine specimen (probably the same) was shot near Kingsbridge, by W. Elliott, Esq., in whose possession it still remains. It is mottled all over with brown and white ; legs yellow ; bill and claws black ; feathers extending very little below the knee. Subgen. 3. Pdndion. 1. Pandion HaliaeHus, Osprey, or Bald buzzard. Several have been shot in our neighbourhood. I have accounts of their being killed or seen in April, May, July, September, October, and November. R. Julian, Esq., of Estover, has one ; and another is in the col- lection of Lord Boringdon, at Saltram. Gen. A'stur. 1. A'stur Palumbarius, Goshawk. Found on Dartmoor. Vide Car- rington's poem Dartmoor. A nest was seen by Bolitho of Devon- port at South Tawton ; and one of the old birds was wounded, but escaped. Gen. Acci'piter. ]. Accipiter fringillarius, Sparrowhawk. Common. Gen. Mi'lvus. 1. Milvus regalis, the Kite. This bird is nearly as scarce as in the time of Montagu, who only saw one in Devonshire in twelve years. A fine specimen is now, however, in Mr. Drew's collec- tion at Stonehouse; another, caught in Trowlsworthy rabbit Tringce new to the British Isles, 115 "